Kim Jones (a.k.a. Mudman) Q&A

1) What are my initial reactions to this artist?

First and foremost, I pity Kim. Mudman hasn’t had to experience the bloody reality of war and is able to express himself as he sees fit and he can cope with regular situations or act how he wants to. But that isn’t to say that he doesn’t carry a burden. Even though he interacts with the people that he’s near, he can’t fully divulge his ideas or beliefs, because the random civilians he encounters are primarily focused on the outer appearance and probably care little about his ego or philosophies. It just seems like a very lonely walk. My other initial reaction to Kim’s work is that it seems selfless and cold, yet composed. His work probably doesn’t pay money, especially considering most people don’t want to buy documentation of him walking 18 miles. He does it just to transcend the normality that we all experience day to day, and I think that it’s a brave gesture, or an ignorant one.

2) Could I ever do work like this?

I think I could. 150 lbs. on your back all day would make you exhausted. But at the same time maybe there is some kind of therapeutic quality that could surface. The strain of your muscles after hours of this could kick in the serotonin and one might not even feel pain. Or maybe afterwards you could get some sort of lethargic bliss from taking it off and you could sleep for days. I guess it also kind of depends on the audience. I’m sure he relies very heavily on the types of people that come up to him, whether they are in a bad mood or a good one.

3) Does this relate to any other work that I have seen in the past?

The book says Eva Hesse, Chris Burden and Bruce Nauman, which I can all see, but the first person I thought about was Robert Smithson and his ‘nonsites’. The mud on his body was what triggered it. By smearing it on his body, leaving the gallery space and intruding on the concrete sidewalks of the modern world, he is adequately representing not only his alter ego, but his connections with distinct places. As he alters himself into a more grotesque figure, he also comes to symbolize the deterioration of our culture. He is a walking entropy monument, unable to deal with harsh social climate we live in; war and violence ridden, ruled by the ‘mighty aggressors’.

4) Why is this work important to learn about?

One reason I guess it’s important is because in a way we can all relate to this idea of an alter ego. We all have ideas that we keep pent up inside us and most often we create or devise ways of expressing our inner turmoil by changing our identities. This allows us to become unafraid of conflict or deal with the stresses or anxiety that are placed upon us. For the most part, people who want to express the ideas of their inner self or alter ego put on nice suits or dresses or indie clothes (or whatever) or put their labrets in or get plastic surgery on their canines to make them look like vampires and they say shit they never would because they are different people in their ‘costumes’. Kim Jones put this stuff on because it illustrates his insides. Much like his art that was confined to the walls or spaces in his gallery, he too is confined and seeks to break out.

5) Is this work influential to me?

The transformation, not really, even though what I’m about to say is all bullshit. I’ve read Kafka and know all about metamorphosis. I’ve read Civilization and It’s Discontents. I feel happy with who and what I am. I don’t need to change my appearance to fit into some kind of ideal self.

As far as the living sculpture, I’m not really interested in it. It seems too much like fashion to me. I think he belongs on the runway.

6) Do I think he is a bad person for burning rats?

I’m sure he gets this kind of question in every interview he does. If he was burning live creatures as a performance piece, I would obviously stay and watch. And it’s not that I don’t care about rats either. If he was burning an endangered killer whale I wouldn’t intervene or walk out of the room either. It’s not my place to say, “Hey, don’t touch that fuckin’ killer whale!” Who am I to deny him an understanding of his own human nature or morals? I hate it when people interpret my work completely wrong out of ignorance and reprimand me for it. Plus, you can’t really blame him. He fought up in a place where that wasn’t considered abnormal probably. And during the 70s there was a destruction theme circulating in the art world. Chris Burden had just gotten shot, Yves Klein threw himself out a window 15 years previously, Acconci was eating himself, Abramovic was slicing her hands to shreds, Mendieta was portraying violent rape performances… the list goes on and on. I think that this piece is more impacting than Mudman.