April 8, 1997

By KAREN RAWLINES __

I have never met Laura Borealis, but have heard much of her accomplish- ments and the work she has done. Perhaps it is just her name that gives her the added intrigue, but there is some- thing about this person that creates a wonder -- some- thing like aurora borealis it- self, I suppose.

She is an artist, a musi- cian, a writer; she has di- rected music videos for the likes of Thrush Hermit and Sebadoh; s4. has influenced some ver 'tfluential peo- ple. She was kind enough to answer a few questions over e-mail for me this past fall, and I horribly left them aside, trying to dream up a context for her insights. Recently I decided that her words speak volumes on their own, and any additions would be forced and superfluous. I will let her speak for herself. in her own voice. Listen:

KR: How do you feel 1: have grown creatively . ile dabbling in many me- dia?

LB: I would be a lot more successful if I stayed with one medium because it would get all my attention. I am greatly influenced by my environment. Since I move

almost every two years to an- other city. everything becomes dislodged and I find myself doing something completely different. I never expected to be making rock videos. I never expected to go into art either.

Where do you see art (in any sense) fitting into today’s society dominated by electronically numbed pas-

PS WiC elisa aL

laura borealis

somewhere past the northern lights

tion out of other things. Com- puter stuff seems really fragile to me, like some bad guy could erase your stuff, or cut off your phone line, or change what you said and make you look like an asshole. I'd rather have an art show with things.

People will think com- puters are tiresome eventu- ally. The whole explosion oc- curred pretty recently. So like

computer user can’t burn all their memories of the past, listen to Kraftwerk all the time, and live in a Miami Vice house, and drive a Ferrari, and tattoo and pierce and take 90’s drugs, and bleach their hair and wear Jean Paul Gaultier, without having a breakdown and developing perverse de- sires to touch dirt or eat leaves or

something.

sages, with schools debat- ing the erradication of their art/music programmes?

I never got into pinball, pong or computers. I like e- mail and video editing and stuff. A lot of people get off on being able to communicate to a lot of people relatively anonymously on the computer. I’m not against computers in any way. I just haven't spent the time or had the desire to try to have a go at it. I get a lot of satisfac-

- Laura Borealis

a computer user can’t burn all their memories of the past, listen to Kraftwerk all the time, and live ina Miami Vice house, and drive a Ferrari, and tattoo and pierce and take 90’s drugs, and bleach their hair and wear Jean Paul Gaultier, without having a breakdown and de- veloping perverse desires to touch dirt or eat leaves or something.

About the school thing, people are always going to

make art. but if people aren't taught to develop something original and study history and theory, then we are going to have things like very sophistocated forms of grafitti, where the majority of the popu- lation is involved, things like that, like sophistocated terror- ism, really crafty versions of what’s around us and on TV. Deconstructions of Baywatch. It’sall sort ofintersting, but not really mind-altering. Before I took any art classes, I was drawing lame cartoons of Grace Jones’s head, and felt like [had a style. The are very barfy drawings.

School taught me hu- mility and observation. | think a lot of people do things hap- hazardly. Like Vanilla Ice, he strikes me as that type. Like

Dumb and Dumber, and Kathie >

Lee doing her show and im- provising lame stories. Huge and uneducated. 10 billion dollars of crap.

How many items have you published? How did you go about funding these projects?

Whatever I have put out has been self-published, and because it’s expensive, there haven’t been very many of them. There is a lot of satis- faction in doing it myself, but it takes a really long time, mostly word of mouth for people to

find out about it.

I’msure Ill always self- publish things, but I have a couple mainstream projects on the go: a film, music, the rock video thing. At some point it becomes desirable to make a living at what comes naturally to you. Most things I make don’t translate well to the gen- eral public. My MFA show in Chicago would be a prime ex- ample of that.

I’ve made two little books, a record, two kinds of t- shirts in multiples. Most of that stuff is old. I have a huge backlog of ideas and finished things. Part of the reason why I haven't put this stuff out is because I don’t have a perma- nent address. My record has this useless Chicago PO Box number on it.

Theoperation Snob Shop has been called SPECIAL CRAP for the next few projects.. A few records by bands I’m in -- CRAPPO, CRAPPO2 (with 2 members of Thrush Hermit), and CRAPS (with Rebecca Kraatz). Maybe a colouring book, stickers, shirts...

As Laura’s answers dwindled away, I could only feel slightly refreshed for her offering of something so real. It isn't the meaning of life or anything, but something strangely real. . That's con- text enough on its own.

Our nicest thanks to the kind folks who kept us supplied with great entertainment (and sometimes arts) this year: Sony Music, BMG, EMI, Universal, Murderecords, Raincoast Books, Capitol, Virgin, Mercury/Polydor, Columbia, Ramona Records, Corduroy Records, No Records, City Cinema, UPEI Theatre Society, 20th Century Fox, Lucasfilm, Steven Spielberg (sp?), Edwin & friends (love ya babe), Thrush and the 3 Hermits, Laura Borealis, Fastbuck, Rez Sisters, SupahPals, Wayne Manson & his lovely wife Marilyn, 54-40=14, Furnaceface, Graceful Babes, The Fruheads, Big Mama D & the Strawberry Jamz, ThEwoks, Colin M., Rainman, France @ SubPop, Madhat. and all the rest of the industrial moguls who have helped along the way.

oh, wyweah. and thamnks to sloan..

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