Week 2

Free writing,, might as well make the most of it! to be honest I hate writing but find it is actually valuable in some instances,, for those who know you and know your work and even to those just intrigued, your writing can become a performance in its self!

Drawing from’s Daniel awkward introduction, yeah the awkward introduction, lol, this will seem pretty cool if you’ve read it,,, a lot of things stuck out to me, one is the fact Daniel himself has a particular writing style that when you read realise is pretty performative. The second is that similar to Daniel,, i’ve also had my own kind own writing style, a language if you will. although not aswell put together as Daniels,, Ive always liked to play with punctuation. “,,,” is definitely a signature and my facebook posts over the last decade, they have had them in abundance. (Dont try and do your reasearch, because i’ve recently deleted alot of my facebook post haha,, however there is still a few from 2008-10 where you can probably see what i’m talking about.. Twitter delete in the making. (My mum keeps telling me i’m gonna be famous so I thought I better act now)) But going back to Daniel, if awkward is in your being? then isnt that just normal,, awakward is normal in Daniel’s practice. So whats my awkward,, what is my thing?..

Going off everything, pre-masters I have to say my thing was Tumblr, tumblr after dark! pretty much like black twitter’s you had to be there,, mate,, white girl tumblr,, you HAD to have been there.. it was a moment! a moment that literally became embedded into my brain, brand, art and aesthetic. It was so naughty, highly inappropriate, x-rated but also still had a level of class! Just some of the many things I loved about it,, - the women taking control of their bodies, the overtly sexual suggestive images, it made tumblr into an artistic porn fantasy,

Another Thing I Used To Do Was Type Like This, hahaha!

But ill leave the sentence above as like a cool header, maybe ill even underline it like this…

Another Thing I Used To Do Was Type Like This, hahaha!

So my obsession with the Tumblr aesthetic, lets be more specific,, the borderline depressive sexy Tumblr white girl aesthetic! for me it was a lifestyle dream, like sex, graphics, sixpacks (male), skateboards, teenage angst, quotes, fluidity, love, all married into photography, id never seen something like it, plus i’d never seen everyone be so open to it. It was all the things I wish I could express, but as a black gay guy, one there where no images like that to repost.. and the images of black people on tumblr at that particular moment where extremely hard to find, nor as half as cool, sexy or artistic, Awkward. Early 20’s that was what filled my screen, never really been a TV person, i’m really into music, and OBSESSED with tumblr!

I just didn’t understand why I found tumblr generally arousing lol,, well I do, lol. (the pictures used in this blog are moderated for the sake of this assignment) I really feel like Tumblr days and vibes have really played a part in me as an artist. Nobody would get it anyway. But, however, they eventually did when I started messing around with Adobe. But this is where it kinda got interesting for me. Even with Tumblr, when you look back, you created your own vibe off of the vibes and images you like. So pretty much like Pintrest, i knew after a while my vibe was the one.. even tho not one single person followed me, or reblogged my post’s lol..

I knew I was on to something, in my early “practice” / promoter day’s,, I used a-lot of Tumblr sex appeal because I knew if I find this crazy sexy white girl Tumblr isht cool, i’m sure I can get my type of people,, (lesbians, gays, straight, black, white, gay, mixedrace, lighties (who think there mixed-race but there black), darkies (who think lighties are too nice), the Ibiza 30+’s i was hanging around with even though id never been haha, just the bag of people that was in my circle) would find this crazy sexy white girl Tumblr shit cool too.

What Do White Girls On Tumblr Have To Do With Black Boys?

I feel that what really connected with me is the Expression within these images. what really speaks and still speaks in these Images is this notion of expression and what you wanna express. Its marketing. What do you want people to see when they see/think of you as an artist!,, What are you trying to communicate?! Im saying Black is cool.. but not in the traditional sense of stereotypes,, in the sense that, Black can make white cool, and black can make white black actually. Its turning the world in on itself so then you can put out your notion.. building the moments you want to share and people to experience.. a scene, a subculture, a society, or meerly a piece of art. Yeah,, its Awkward! But thats my thing, even this website.. Stylistically,, Aesthetically,, a moment, A Tumblr Moment,, it’s kinda cool,, yeah its white but yet yeah still very black.. theres a thin line between where its sits hence why its deliberately in greyscale - J. My visual language therefore is bi-lingual.

Now. Thats kinda out the way, What i’m really trying to say, as I reach 31, yes, I owe alot of my artistic vision to the whole Tumblr thing,, and its always been a part of my practice / promoter day’s,, to use this Tumblr vibe to push my idea of culture,, Basically mixing White Girl Tumblr Aesthetic and Black Aesthetic to create my own Aesthetic / Culture. Thats my thing.

So Post-Old-Practice.. New Beginning.
So my thing! Now although its been pretty quite for me as an artist for a few years,, i’m here with a new vision thats the old vision, or more so re-invented,,! I’ve been doing my thing to long, so long it’s just embedded in everything I do,, although before my vision was about creating safe spaces,, now its about creating viable moments, pieces of ART, Architecture, Tangible Assest and Works that speak volumes. It’s taking my thing one step further to really push boundaries and hopefully get everybody speaking my language and if not speaking fluently at the very least understanding it.

So if I was to define my practice now,

Well thats just it,, its practice,, practicing performativity,, practicing developing my aesthetic thing,, practice of using other images to create a deeper meaning. Practice of creating my own imagery to support my culture. Click! Take a picture and do something with it,, (reframing) Snap Je?!

(round of applause)

Thanks for listening to my Awkward Ted Talk.

Levi x

Pictures below taken by myself (2015, Amsterdam) & The SK!NT flyer above also design by me!