"Ashley Andel's true obsession is art, or perhaps even more broadly, any kind of excitement for the eyes. A total visualphile, the largely self-schooled Andel is like that fictional boy genius Encyclopedia Brown when it comes to art, dropping references some BFA grads wouldn't necessarily be familiar with alongside myriad kitsch, camp and indie culture name-checks."
- Mary Christa O'Keefe
The Proof
1) Employment.
I work in a warehouse in Coquitlam, which is basically the antithesis of everything I am. My job grounds me, which is probably fortunate, because my head is very much aloft.
2) My father's 600+ page letter.
Among the various things bequeathed to me after my father's passing was a 600+ page handwritten letter addressed to nobody in particular. This ephemeral behemoth erratically illustrates a mind that comfortably nestled fetishistic infantilism alongside mundane reports of what was served at lunch time. Comfortable reading is further disregarded due to the fact that scraps and napkins acted as record, and pages were never kept in order. Was my dad a Henry Darger-like eccentric or just an ignoramus with a ball point?
3) "Brash Play".
"Brash Play" is an art show I've been working on over the past year. It's about making use of whatever is around you for character sake, and that art doesn't have to apologize for revelry. In my case, this show is about finding charm in between the extremes imposed by the working-week; living for the weekend has a cyclical beauty, however mechanized and detrimental it seems.
4) Children's workshop.
When it comes to making art involving unapologetic revelry, children are unsurpassed, as they made clear at a collage workshop I held at a North Vancouver elementary school.
5) Raw salmon.
If, in 40,000 years time, my body is discovered frozen in some cavernous glacier, forensic examination will undoubtedly find copious amounts of raw salmon in my digestive tract.
6) Alcohol.
With notable alkie Guy Debord in mind, my town-roaming drunkenness isn't "ass-clowning", it's "psychogeography".
7) "Cute food".
Selective diets fascinate me; As said in the liner notes of the album "The Electronic Spirit of Erik Satie" (1972), someone claiming to be inhabited by the spirit of Satie was said to have eaten "only food that is white" during the recording of the project. Prompted by this absurd feat, I decided to spend a week eating nothing but 'cute' foods; inquiring about horse-meat at local butcher shops proved as barbaric as asking for "leg of toddler". Pictured above is my first attempt at rabbit stew. Incidentally, PETA, to me, is something that goes well with lamb.
8) Mayoko.
Good behavior doesn't always come easily, and I thank my lucky stars that I have Mayoko here to keep an eye on me. But, unnervingly, she documents my every action on her romance blog for Elle Magazine Japan. It's easy to forget that every day, hundreds of Japanese women pore over pictures of me examining eggs and shucking corn...
The Questions
1) Presently, I'm living next to English Bay, which is a considerable trek from work, but galleries, restaurants and bicycle rides around the seawall make it worth the effort.
2) I don't find any entertainment in most television, video games or sports, so obsessive construction occupies me in the same fashion. Art work is fun work; the work of play, which is not to say that it isn't without it's own subtle monotony, but such is the same for most television, video games or sports anyhow. After my day job, I set up a picnic of paper scraps and delectables about my living-room floor to see if I can come up with something palatable by day-break.
3) Fact of the matter is, I've spent the last three years of my life "getting my ya-yas out"; shy and introverted during my teenage years, any adolescent abandonment was bottled up, and spritzed violently over my mid-twenties. Spinning myself dizzy wasn't always salutary as brashness sometimes begat contempt from some compatriots: yes, I've been a jackass! Presently, I'm retiring from the gonzo, and aiming for the graceful; picking up the haphazard bits and assembling them into submission packages for local galleries and venues is chief aim right now. And I miss working more co-operatively; unpolluted communion is very much craved.
4) I have shows here and there every now and then, but ashleyandel.blogspot.com is the main online stop to see the goings-on. You can also see a big ham in action at www.youtube.com/user/ashleyandel.
