Interview: Cory Arcangel

It’s a mess right now.

This is going to be a video wall, with three monitors stacked on top of each other, with an editorial advertisement video like you might see in the airport. So that will serve as a wall, with office and storage behind it, and with the front desk out in front of the screens. (He marks an area where the desk will be.) I’ll sit here when the shop is open.

From 12–3 on Saturdays only.

This is all going to go away and this little section is going to be the gallery, he says, pointing to a very small section of the room located by the only window. The first show will have a projection on this wall. It will be Burt Barr, Watching the Paint Dry: Red. Do you know this video? It’s an eight–minute video of paint drying. It’s just a red video. It’s one of my favorite videos. And then there will be products and other artworks on the slat wall. It will look very slick but also a little bit messy. And these magazines I’m making, produced at Grafo Trykkeri, are coming next week too. So for sale there will be magazines, books, records, clothes, and fidget spinners. And then the gallery section. So that’s the plan.

Haha, lol. You are getting right into it. Do you mean legally, in terms of tax law?

You know you’re the first people to talk to me about this so I don’t have any answers yet. Lets start with the practical. It will function as an actual shop – physically, people will be able to come here and buy things as if they are buying them in any normal shop. And then this little section over here will be a gallery. In terms of how it works in my larger practice, with Surfware I’m always trying to make it like a real business… But it hasn’t quite happened yet.

I have a type of ambition, but in the end the decisions for the – I don’t want to call it a brand because I don't think people don’t use that word anymore – the decisions for this project is that trying to produce an art moment always takes precedence over commerce. So I’m always making decisions that don’t make any sense! For example opening this store in Stavanger East that’s only open 3 hours a week – that is a decision that in terms of commerce does not make any sense. But in terms of doing something interesting, and a bit in–accessible – which is a bit closer art – it makes a lot of sense.

Yeah! That’s one of the famous artist shops. Well the shop is the Arcangel Surfware flagship and the gallery is Flagship AS. So the gallery is actually going to have a separate name, and profile. But the good thing about this Arcangel Surfware project is that is has no direction or ambition or purpose. So if it turns out that the gallery is more fun to run than the shop than maybe next year it will just turn into a gallery. I have no goals.

We have a new tagline! We make both merchandise and software so the new line is: Arcangel Surfware is a multinational software and merchandise publisher based in New York and Stavanger.

Yes! Hahahaa.

It is a merchandise and software publisher. So we produce software, like the Tony Conrad Music and the Mind of the World website, of the the twitter bot that we also made to go with that. We also publish clothes and books. Each year we try to do a collection. Our 2017 collection was fidget spinners. The 2016 collection was clothes. The 2015 was also clothes. And in 2014, it was records and magazines and bedding. And upcoming I don’t know! The store! I didn’t make anything new for the store. The store is what’s new.

It started in 2014 because I was approached by Bravado which is a company that is owned by Universal. They approached me and they wanted to do a merchandise deal so I started it for that deal. We no longer work with Bravado so it’s totally independent now. I said yes to them and then I had to come up with some idea. And then it made sense to do… you know Lil Wayne has Truck Fit and Drake has OVO. I wanted to have my own kind of related but semi–unrelated thing like Truckfit and OVO.

I’ve been looking / inspired by similar projects like Badlands Unlimited, Diagonal Press, Atelier AB, The Serving Library, Are.na and Science Ltd.

It's not a good way to make money, and its definitely impractical! Well, when I'll be tending the shop, and I think it’s nice that people can come buy my stuff. It’s very one to one, and kinda the opposite of the things I have done in the last 20 years, which was network based. Secondly, I wanted to take control of my publishing. So artist books – we published our first book a year ago. So if I had an idea for an artist book or if I wanted to do my own catalogue I wanted the option to always be able to do it myself and not rely on a publisher. So that was kind of the practical thought, taking control of my own business.

The last big project we did with Arcangel Surfware was 2017's Tony Conrad's Music and the Mind of the Word publication. Yes, I want to work more in that direction. To have it not be so much based around my own work. To have move towards collaborations with other people. And, even though we’re opening up a store, it seems like it’s quite possible that what the brand does will become less and less … physical. Maybe we’ll just release software.

No. I have some plans to continue to do little pop–ups here and there.

Yeah and it’s a test, a way to test things in an real environment. Like these pieces are tests. And now they’re here and they look good so I’m like ok, I did that!

Just Burt Barr. The show will play until the fall and after that I want to do two shows a year – if I really get my shit together three shows a year. No, for the gallery I have high ambitions let’s say. … since it’s only one work per artist, and only two shows a year, I feel like I could really get it going.

Yeah.. ha!

Yeah me too! When I organized the show at Prosjektrom Normanns with Jacob Ciocci I just saw how much everyone loves to come here – to Stavanger. People love it here! So the gallery is an engine for me to keep that kind of thing happening.

I think it has to do with the ocean always in your sightline. That, and the air is a lot cleaner here. The cars stop for you on the road. The architecture is really cool. I think all these things combined are why people like being here. Oh and the food is really good! We forget it when we’re here for awhile. If somebody came here for a week, every meal they have would be super fresh. When Jacob came it was berry season and I was like let’s go to the center of town and get a pound of these handpicked berries you’ve never heard of before. It’s super fresh and exotic.

Yeah! Work life balance. No reason to rush. And for me putting this store together was also a way to build a local production muscle. Because that’s what I do for a living is make stuff. I didn’t like always making things in New York – it made me feel weird. And I found that weirdly, I think it’s easier to make things here. Stavanger has such a strong manufacturing culture so it’s surprising how many things you can get made here easily. You also don’t have to nag people. When somebody says something is going to happen on Thursday, it will literally happen on Thursday.

Yeah it's more like the way I worked 20 years ago. Where I’m on the phone and emailing and doing everything.

Creativity is logistics.

Yes, exactly. We’re also redesigning the website with Benjamin Hickethier which is going to be cool. He designed a very beautiful website last week for Arcangel Surfware.

Yes. We took down our web store. The brand is only available right now in the flagship. Indefinitely. Maybe that’s the way it has to be from now on.

Haha! Yeah also not smart. But I kind of like it. Now you actually have to come to Stavanger to buy this stuff.

My only plan at the moment is to make it to the opening on May 5th.