Joshua Saunders: Crip/Blood

After building a Crayola-colored sex cage and creating semen art for previous shows, Joshua Saunders is now transforming Domy Books into a Bloods and Crips-themed gangsta’s paradise. Through the feuding sunsets, boogie boards, and altered Slurpee machine, Saunders encourages conversations about opposition, symbolism, and “cultural hallucination.” We caught up with Saunders during his installation to learn more about his Crip/Blood show, opening at Domy Books on Saturday.

On the concept of the show:
This show is obviously called Crip/Blood. This show is the first singular idea I’ve ever allowed to become the entire show. I guess that Pseudo-Masochism show was similar. That was a singular idea. This year, I’ve been looking at a lot more work and been a lot more turned on by work that revolves around a singular theme. It feels like an artist has come into a gallery and has transformed a whole space into the idea that they’re working with. It’s one idea, not a representation of a lot of time. It’s more conceptual. I feel like I want to move in that direction. The idea is where it’s at, and it’s not even the final product in a way.

On the particular idea of this show:
I’m trying to participate in what I consider the cultural hallucination. Something like Crip and Blood has an obvious valid historical context that’s pretty specific for this topic. Crips and Bloods are clearly gangs. It’s a step after the Black Panther party. Like late ‘60s, Crips arrive almost like an answer for the end of the Black Panther party, and quickly afterward, they need their opposition.

I love watching gang movies. I love rap music. All of that is this cultural hallucination that is this almost Hollywood movie where we’re digesting information that’s based on fact, but becomes this ambiguous, almost dream, that we create. Things lose their value pretty fast, and then they’re commoditized. Everyone steals from it, and it becomes people’s personal projection of what they are. [They] try to make sense of living in a meaningless, shape-shifting world where there are so many potent words and images that float through a culture that means so much to people. But their value is almost not important, and I’m interested in that.

On the influence of opposition in the show:
I love the color combination; the colors are clearly in opposition. It’s humor based, color based, kind of opposition. It’s like two choices that are violently in opposition to each other. It’s a binary system. It’s fun to make work out of. It has all the potent kind of baggage with it. It’s very much male, female. Gay, straight. Right, wrong.

On the use of text in the show:
Any text in the show is Helvetica, except for the Slurpee machine. I didn’t want to make it about text or bring out garish, like, Old English, which would make it too gang-y. I always consider Helvetica the no-thought [text]. I reiterate the words over and over to the point where it seems almost ridiculous. Almost every single piece has text in it. Almost every single piece says Crip and Blood.

Preview of the pieces in this show:
It’s a very textual show, but there are objects, too. There’s these two boogie boards. There’s two roses, kind of Beauty and the Beast kind of idea. There’s a red rose and a blue rose, and the petals are falling off of them. Married into the petals that have fallen are Blood and Crip in Helvetica. There’s these beautiful sunsets. I married into the sunsets Crip and Blood. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. Like, why are these sunsets choosing sides? I want people to laugh and not get it sometimes. And then there’s pieces that are a relief. I painted Michael Jordan that’s 40x60. And the Slurpee machine - that’s the most accessible. That’s the fun piece. That’s the piece that’s really interactive. People will be able to get an alcoholic Blood or Crip-flavored Slurpee that’s really Wild Cherry or whatever. There’s going to be a pile of posters where I’m going to forge Michael Jordan’s signature in gold and write “Blood in, blood out.” There’s a sculpture that’s two [screenprinted] toothbrushes.

On his favorite Slurpee flavor:
I lean towards Blood. The blue seems more toxic to me. I don’t trust the neon blue as much as I do the neon red.

On the fate of the Slurpee machine after the show:
Well, if no one buys it, I might sell it back to the doctor of Slurpees. Or I don’t know, maybe someone will buy it. If someone buys it, I’m going to be bewildered, but I’m not going to keep it. I don’t want a Slurpee machine. I don’t want to drink margaritas over and over. I don’t like consuming sugar nonstop. That’s disgusting.