Book Review: Smoked, Volume 2 ...
Eric Shapiro - NY Press 8/12/2010
Proponents of pot smoking have often cited their favorite herb as a source of creativity. Indeed, cannabis’ influence on artists in all different mediums has been so well documented that it’s almost clichéd to point it out. On the other hand, smoking implements themselves, as well as those responsible for making them, are less often credited. Sure, stoners everywhere appreciate the beauty and functionality of a well rolled joint or blunt, and many have formed sentimental attachments to their pieces, sometimes to the point of naming them. Nevertheless, few have truly considered the artistic potential associated with the age-old pastime.
The Smoked series, released in conjunction with exhibitions at Easy Street Gallery in Brooklyn, showcases the oft overlooked but thriving movement that has elevated glass pipe-making to art. The just-releasedSmoked Volume 2 (GritCityInc.) is comprised of essays, interviews and high-quality photographs. All too often, the essays come across as excessive (albeit deserved) cheerleading for the medium and artists.
For example, the foreword, penned by Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio, is well written, but doesn’t reveal much about the art of glass blowing. I suppose his star power adds some oomph to an otherwise pedestrian statement of purpose, but it comes across as a transparent bid for credibility, as if the editors of Smokedaren’t confident enough to let the art speak for itself. This can be forgiven, I suppose, since there’s bound to be a certain stigma associated with objects with the ostensible purpose of getting people high off illicit substances. But would any of these haters listen to TV on the Radio? Probably not, but whatever.
But no one buys an art book primarily to read the text, andSmoked delivers on an artistic level. The photographs of glass pipes are positively stunning. Josh Opdenaker, who seems to harbor an artistic obsession with multi-limbed, anthropomorphic elephants (like Ganesh, but slimmer and sexier), says in his interview: “Only five percent of glass blowers are original in style and thought. The other ninety-five percent are just style biters.” Smoked must only be drawing from that special five percent, because not one of its featured artists is similar to another.
Each artist has his or her own distinctive theme, be it sci-fi, coral, flora, seashell, candle, ice cream cone, etc. And those descriptions are reductive to the extreme. In moments of boredom, I found myself opening up to random pages and staring at the contents for minutes at a time, admiring their dizzying array of colors, textures and contours. Sure, pipes are made for smoking, butSmoked Volume 2 is a testament to the fact that they can also be so much more.
Proponents of pot smoking have often cited their favorite herb as a source of creativity. Indeed, cannabis’ influence on artists in all different mediums has been so well documented that it’s almost clichéd to point it out. On the other hand, smoking implements themselves, as well as those responsible for making them, are less often credited. Sure, stoners everywhere appreciate the beauty and functionality of a well rolled joint or blunt, and many have formed sentimental attachments to their pieces, sometimes to the point of naming them. Nevertheless, few have truly considered the artistic potential associated with the age-old pastime.
The Smoked series, released in conjunction with exhibitions at Easy Street Gallery in Brooklyn, showcases the oft overlooked but thriving movement that has elevated glass pipe-making to art. The just-releasedSmoked Volume 2 (GritCityInc.) is comprised of essays, interviews and high-quality photographs. All too often, the essays come across as excessive (albeit deserved) cheerleading for the medium and artists.
For example, the foreword, penned by Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio, is well written, but doesn’t reveal much about the art of glass blowing. I suppose his star power adds some oomph to an otherwise pedestrian statement of purpose, but it comes across as a transparent bid for credibility, as if the editors of Smokedaren’t confident enough to let the art speak for itself. This can be forgiven, I suppose, since there’s bound to be a certain stigma associated with objects with the ostensible purpose of getting people high off illicit substances. But would any of these haters listen to TV on the Radio? Probably not, but whatever.
But no one buys an art book primarily to read the text, andSmoked delivers on an artistic level. The photographs of glass pipes are positively stunning. Josh Opdenaker, who seems to harbor an artistic obsession with multi-limbed, anthropomorphic elephants (like Ganesh, but slimmer and sexier), says in his interview: “Only five percent of glass blowers are original in style and thought. The other ninety-five percent are just style biters.” Smoked must only be drawing from that special five percent, because not one of its featured artists is similar to another.
Each artist has his or her own distinctive theme, be it sci-fi, coral, flora, seashell, candle, ice cream cone, etc. And those descriptions are reductive to the extreme. In moments of boredom, I found myself opening up to random pages and staring at the contents for minutes at a time, admiring their dizzying array of colors, textures and contours. Sure, pipes are made for smoking, butSmoked Volume 2 is a testament to the fact that they can also be so much more.