Jesse Bercowetz has produced eclectic volatile arrangements culling information and imagery from the deepest recesses of the human consciousness and experience for the better part of 25 years. Recently Bercowetz completed a Jerome Foundation Grant to travel to Southeast Asia where he meditated, interacted with prison inmates, and produced a series of sculptural journals. In this Q&A interview The Comp Magazine prods this wandering spirit on his journey and his relationship to the world of art.
So, you have a rather colorful background. You’ve been a street corner preacher, created an artwork at Howard Finster’s Paradise Gardens, walked numerous miles with art in tow, studied/practiced art in Chicago and beyond, currently live and work in Brooklyn, New York, and recently spent an extended time in SE Asia. Are there specific experiences that you can identify that inform your working practice?
Yeah let’s just call it the dark rural days of nomadic mysticism – with some hellfire and brimstone thrown in for the f*%# of it.
Jesse Bercowetz, The Room Filled with Smoke, 2014
Seriously though, I would say I’ve come full circle after two decades of art making… a little more mature possibly?
Jesse Bercowetz, This Corpse and Not That Corpse, 2013. In collaboration with Andy Braddock
After a stint of exhibitions in galleries, institutions and art fairs my interest are now focused back on art that really engages with community. So I’m back to doing work on the street and working with very ephemeral materials such as: bananas, pineapples and melons.
Jesse Bercowetz, When the Budget is Tight, 2011
My working practice is not at all a practice as I see it – practice makes me think of honing a skill and I try to steer away from that- except when meditating and trying not to be an asshole.
Jesse Bercowetz, Swami Bondage, Weekend Query and the Night-Time Soak, 2011
Photo credit Cristina Saez
My upbringing influenced an independent life style of risk taking, creative exploration and very little patience for authority. For better or worse that shit has been imprinted in the core of my being…
Jesse Bercowetz, Drug Crazed Unicorn, 2014
While in Laos I was inspired by villagers who have rebuilt their homes using the U.S. bombshells drop on them during the secret war…talk about resilience!
You have an eclectic raw vision that uses multiple mediums in a tactile, and at times unsettling way. The large sculptural works often use disparate items in a subversive manner that eliminates rational interpretation. Can you share your process for creating your ongoing works?
My art comes out of impatience and impulse. I work intuitively with unfamiliar materials like vegetables, human hair, scorpions and rock candy. I make altars that merge with the naked body, cannibalizing…I fail and I have fun doing it…
Jesse Bercowetz, And Now Its Like This, 2011
We’ve known each other for over 20 years. You have always been one to question inequalities, a trait I admire. What do you see your role as an artist/individual to be? How does this questioning of or rebelling against inform your practice?
I can only tell you how I feel today: The pursuit of the individual doesn’t end pretty and rebellion is almost immediately consumed by capitalism. It can be challenging to make art in a place like America-a place that rewards the individual for harming others. One thing I have started doing is selling my art on a sliding scale and not allowing it to be valued based on the market. Something I have stopped doing is showing with commercial galleries who do not believe in the full scope of my work. You see arts real power is in its healing potential and its ability to communicate abstract ideas and its hard for art to do those things when its in a high dollar crate in some CEO’s climate controlled warehouse.
Jesse Bercowetz, Ring Fingers, 2011
Creativity is a powerful thing and it’s in every one of us…that’s why I am in love with the world of art not to be confused with the art world.
What are you reading currently? Does this have any impact on how you see the world or respond to it through creating artwork?
I just finished Street Zen- it’s the story of Issan Dorsey who was a cross dressing drug addict and all around troublemaker. That became a Zen priest and started a grass roots hospice for folks dying of AIDS. I’m currently reading Sacred Passage by Margaret Colberly, Ph.D., R.N. She talks about societies fear and out right avoidance of death and the potential for transference with grace and wonderment.
Jesse Bercowetz, San Francisco Nights, 2012
Two books I would highly recommend are by young female authors: Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich and American, Guests, or Us by Caren Beilin (I did the cover art for Caren’s book but, only because she is an amazing person and a literary force to be reckoned with)!
Do you have any upcoming projects that we should keep an eye out for?
I am focusing the next year on death and dying… I will be sitting with people that are in the last 6 months of their life. I will also be working with a group of drug addicts to develop a program that incorporates meditation and art. Lastly I am preparing to make a series of outdoor altars made from human hair and Napalm.
Jesse Bercowetz, Some Times Nothing Keeps Me Together at the Seams, 2008
Curated by Dan Cameron
Jesse Bercowetz is an artist who lives in New York City. He is an alumni of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been exhibited at The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Art Basel and PS1 / MOMA. He is a MacDowell Colony Fellow and has received grants and residencies from the Pollock / Krasner Foundation and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, L.A. Weekly and ArtForum. He has mentored NYC youth through the Joan Mitchell Foundation, and immigrant artist as a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow. He has volunteered with the Coalition for the Homeless, NYC and Luna-Rose Prisoner Support, Bangkok, Thailand. Bercowetz recently returned from South East Asia on a research grant from The Jerome Foundation. He is currently leading a meditation group at New York Harm Reduction educators, while pursuing Chaplaincy Certification at The New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.
To see additional works by Jess Bercowetz, please visit: http://jessebercowetz.com/home.html
And for prisoner’s support, please visit: http://luna-roseprisonersupport.org/
Jesse Bercowetz, artist, Chicago, IL, 1995
Interview and portrait by Chester Alamo-Costello
