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Ryan McNamara cannot focus.
Or he does not want to focus.
Or he doesnt think that focus would represent his (or our) current state of affairs.
Maybe most often hes called a performance artist.
Even the November 17 opening for his new showI.L.L.I.S.
Hed not thought of making souvenirs, but everybody wanted to buy the one he had on.
The show is determinedly goofy and grotesque, but, under that, full of serious ideas.
Just ones you have to laugh about.
They lived out of the back, and it was all very novel until it was not.
(Casey Spoonershowed up at his opening, too.)
There, she saw his video, which she selected for Athens.
It was eventually seen there by MoMA curators who purchased it for the museum collection.
It was the first artwork McNamara ever sold.
In 2009,he was asked to perform for then-PS1 director Klaus Biesenbachat Art Basel Miami Beach.
Hes been flown to Moscow forcommissions.
Silly as it may sound, McNamaras harlequin approach to art defines his inadvertent career.
The essence of comedy and romance present throughout his work remains.
And hell be the first to tell you, his show is largely inspired by … gunge.
So, what is gunge exactly?
Its a growing fetish.
I would say its the fastest-growing fetish.
What I like about it is that its not necessarily porn, itsYouTube-friendly.
Preteen girls and gay men are interested in the same thing.
Its not the first time.
I was wondering why were interested now in this slimy thing you cant control.
Then I was like,All right,let yourself go completely conspiracy theory about it.
And it was kind of about chaos.
We thought about progress and development and information as a river moving forward.
I remember hyperlinks when I first discovered them as a young person.
I thought it was groundbreaking.
It felt fast and all over the place, and now it feels like sludge.
It feels like there is so much.
I think that we feel like were in sludge because its heavy and uncontrollable.
So I was giving in to the lack of control.
I kind of like the mess.
I was thinking,Why gunge now?And I thought,Well, its ridiculous.
Theres something perverse about loving the feeling of slime.
I didnt know what gunge was.
I looked it up and I was completely intrigued by it.
I will say, I am a gunge fetishist now, and it was a complete accident.
Its leaning into the messiness of sex.
Just lean into the fucked-up-ness of bodies and goo and all of that.
Theres always a thin layer of slime, so its just completely slippery.
Its a contained mess and at the end of the day, you put it away.
Isnt that nice to have a mess you could put away and shower off when youre done?
How many pieces are in this show?So many!
There are a few that Ive modified.
Everything Ive worked on since summer.
And this is just not that easily identifiable.
Thats kind of like being a queer person.
Youre at brunch with your family and then youre at the sex club.
It feels really false to have a very easily identifiable thesis because thats not where I am right now.
Even just right now in the fucking world, its fucking nuts.
Even if you dont have ADHD right now, you have ADHD.
When I came to New York, I knew nothing about dance.
I was not a performer.
It just kind of happened.
Performance is also very demanding.
You have to kind of go all-in.
I have this share on Fire Island with other artists.
They would do little things like do sketches.
I was like,Oh, Ive become so project-based.
It became a job.
I mean, itisa job.
Performance doesnt really allow you to fuck around, you know?
You have a performance or you dont.
Its not like Im making the performance before I have the commission.
Now, I dont need to email 40 people to get them together and then find rehearsal space.
I can just go buy clay!
Its a little lonely, being in my studio after these performances.
Im just making stuff and I can forget the world a little bit.
Many artists I know work directly with clothing without realizing.
Theyre making T-shirt designs like you, or sewing up hems.
Its unprecedented in human history that you’re free to do that.
I learned a lot from YouTube University.
Obviously, YouTube is a cultural force, but for real its changed my life.
I made all of this by hand.
I actually think I was sort of interested because my actual thumbprints are in [these sculptures].
There are enough streamlined things in the world.
I like whats folksy about art.
The paper clay Im using is very grandma.
This show, even though I didnt buy it at Michaels, is very Michaels.
Its funny to think you work primarily on site-specific projects, yet you claim to be so scatterbrained.
How do you focus that?You dont.
I wanted the show to be packed.
Not just an elegant hang.
My last show was atMary Boone.
I really like that show, but I do feel like that level of finish was intimidating to me.
Im from Arizona and Mary Boone is fancy!
Thats not a part of my personality, like I was becoming OCD.
And lo and behold you went for gunge.Horror movies and sci-fi have always been interesting to me.
When I was 19, I had a show at my gallery.
It was called Society Page, and I wrote a C.W.
I think I got too classy.
I wanted to have more fun, and this is what I want to make right now.
This is how I feel right now.
Maybe this is maturity, caring less.
I didnt come to this from wanting to have an audience.
Maybe this is a safe way of having people around.
My kind of people.
Four childlike sculptures are central to the show.
They each have their own personality and experiences on display.
Do you feel more intimately about these works than your performances?This press release I wrote.
I think I feel more confident.
Im supposed to have an elegant hang, but its not going to look perfect.
Its going to look a little fucked.
Human beings made this shit.
Would you say the show is about gunge?No.
Its more so about experience in my life.
