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by Lindsay O'Connor
SDMusicMatters Magazine
To quote Henry Rollins, “You want some art? Come and get
it.” Machismo of the man aside, he had it right. Nothing
in life is (or should be) spoon fed, so why should art be? Blatant
expressions of sunsets and that blah blah motel room art is the
proverbial silver spoon shoved in your mouth. Where is the challenge,
where is the art? This is precisely the question that the artists
of the Radioactive Future collective answer for you. Radioactive
Future is D.I.Y. to the core. And no blah blah boring art here.
Throw out your preconceived notions of what art is. For the artists
in Radioactive Future, this is life. As Pierce, founder/organizer
of Radioactive Future, explains, “There is a real dichotomy
between ‘formal/traditional art’ and our form of art.
The formal art shows have entry prices that are so high that my
artists can’t afford to be a part of them. You shouldn’t
have to choose between paying rent and being in an art show.”
Right on. Come and get it!
Bill Pierce lives in a compound. He finds refuge in a subterfuge
with every wall covered in rare, colorful pieces. A huge man-made
robot looms over the room with vacant, almost prognosticating,
eyes. Bill’s hand made industrial art is scattered about
in a hut of materials, posters, and stickers. Welcome to the home
of an art fanatic. Bill is not merely the founder of Radioactive
Future, he is also the personification of utter passion. It is
this passion that keeps him striving to continue to expose the
undeniable vision of the artists in RAF.
The dedication of Pierce is matched by the devotion of the artists.
“All of the shows we have done, artists have helped me. Artists
have helped me hang every show we have done. You’re either
an artist or you’re not” And that, my friends, is hardcore.
Founded by Bill in 2000, Radioactive Future began to breathe some
air into the lungs of a withering if not dead San Diego art scene.
Pierce has organized the shows and events that would thus become
the crutch and crux of the SD scene. Radioactive Future is only
as powerful and viable as what it represents. "I wanted to
provide some cohesion in a disenfranchised yet extraordinarily
viable art scene,” Pierce says. And thus radioactivefuture.com
was born, a conceptually intense collective.
On a local level, Bill simply doesn’t want the San Diego
scene to get another case of the blahs. "The most important
thing to me really is the San Diego art scene, and not having
it die again. All it takes is one big setback, and everything
comes to a screeching halt. At least 80 percent of all the places
I’ve done shows in are now gone."
Perhaps this is because most people tend to shy away from going
to art shows to avoid the pretension that prevails. What is most
enjoyable about a Radioactive Future show is that you can go in
your grungy T-shirt, jeans and non-hipster garb and feel accepted.
Who cares? It’s about the art. The artists within these collectives
are your average genius Joe, not your chain smoking Basquiat wannabes.
These are people you can approach and have a beer and some cheese
puffs with. And you get the feeling that they actually appreciate
you being there.
Bill continues, “There is such an incredible sense of community.
We are not so much art shows as we are collectives. The collective
spirit and support that we’ve been able to garner is amazing.
We all understand that we all have to work together to make it
work. The underground art scene in San Diego is incredibly cooperative,
once you get to know the right people. “
Another turn off for a lot of folks is that art prints and art
pieces
tend to be astronomically over priced. Radioactive Future shows
have affordable art pieces. You you can easily whip out your wallet
or check book, purchase a piece and feel good about it in the
morning. “We have affordable pieces. And I think that is
refreshing to a lot of people. Even if you buy a five dollar poster.
You’re going to walk away with an incredible piece of art.”
In addition to the affordable price of the art pieces, the changeability
and irreverence of the artists makes this budding San Diego art
scene very unique. You’re guaranteed to see new pieces at
each show, as opposed to having the same art pieces appear over
and over again. “There’s always a changing dynamic which
is why I think my shows are worth going to. It’s not like
I dictate what the artists do. They are always changing. I’ve
never seen any of the artists we work with do the same stuff.
And the people I work with are so good! “
So what does the future hold for Radioactive Future?
Bill explains that one of the largest problems of the San Diego
scene of yesteryear is that people just picked up, moved to a
more artistically conducive place, and left a flailing, fragile
scene in the dust. Pierce emphasizes the importance of having
an epicenter of art in SD. Damn straight.
So, perhaps art isn’t as complicated a medium as it may seem.
Maybe you don’t need to “come and get it”- it’s
already here, in front of your face. It’s in your home town,
right around the corner. Art is all around us. Art is what you
make of it. And Radioactive Future is making a lot out of the
passion of it’s parts.
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