Artist Luis Gispert spoke to UA students last night about his film, sculpture and photography, all of which are inspired by his experiences growing up in Miami during the 1980s.
The lecture began with a screening of Gispert’s experimental film titled “”Stereomongrel.”” The film, which is Gispert’s first full-scale motion-picture, blends genres like 1970s and 80s horror movies.
An alumnus of the Art Institute of Chicago and a graduate student at Yale, Gispert said during his studies he tried to unlearn all that he learned during his undergraduate degree and look back to a time when he made things before he learned what art was.
“”It was almost like being liberated from what your teachers tell you,”” Gispert said. “”And (you’re) on your own discovering what is interesting to you and discovering new knowledge and information that is outside what your professors taught or being brave enough to question what your professors taught you.””
Gispert said car culture, disc jockey culture and sound systems are major influences in his work. During the lecture he showed photographs of his sculptures, many of which have been made out of boom boxes and reshaped into different forms such as a doghouse. Much of Gispert’s work contains the iconography of radios: There is a sculpture constructed of a bench made from stereos. He said it was a reflection of early hip-hop culture.
He said that the time in his life between elementary school and high school has been the most influential on his art.
“”That was a very weird time in Miami,”” he said. “”It was a dangerous place in the ’80s; there was a lot of crime and colorful people where I lived so I saw a lot of weird things that were just as strange as what you’d see on the TV or in the news.””
Gispert, who also took photography classes at Yale, displayed athletes “”defying gravity.”” His sport photographs reflect the fascination in popular culture with people levitating, such as basketball players. He believes this sense of magic is reflected in hip-hop and street culture and has an affinity with baroque and rococo art.
His current project, titled “”The World is Yours,”” depicts the insides of vehicles with various backdrops to create the idea of post-apocalyptic scenes, which is what brings him to Arizona.
“”I’m going to drive around Arizona and Utah shooting landscapes that people will see through the window of the vehicles,”” Gispert said.
