Arts
To say that Albie is a multidisciplinary artist shows the paucity of art speak itself. He seems to use whatever tactics are at his disposal. Some of them relate, some of them don’t, although throughout our conversation we seem to find more vectors that connect through work than he was willing to admit to. Albie's practice seems to be about just doing what seems right and feasible at the moment. He works as a graphic designer, he’s done conceptual audio pieces, one we play here, he’s made and shown sculptures and film and until the recent pandemic has split his time between LA—where he’s from—Mexico City and Phnom Penh, a place he has historical roots. His work is about culture but his thinking is political, a nice mix. As in, he’s politically active but his work avoids any of the didactic tropes that have made political art somewhat overstated, and possibly not the right medium for something that’s supposed to have a direct message, an act good art successfully avoids. Here we talk about his interest in style and subculture, and how code switching between his Long Beach home and the LA schools to which he was bussed, along with the multiple cultures he’s both inhabited and lived influence his work as we get into the connection between memory, objects and space. We also grapple with the spike and stasis of identity politics between the 2010’s and now, what were important moments and what areas are being, perhaps, considered with more nuance now. One thing that comes through is his positive use of a kind of natural sociability—perhaps a result of having to live multiple lives as a child—to organize community based art and social initiatives. In other words, he’s hard to pin down, but maybe that's the point?Site: http://albertsamreth.com/Albies Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfu5_aU86Q4&feature=youtu.be&app=desktopLos Angeleno Grotesque: https://www.urbanfonts.com/fonts/Los_Angeleno_Grotesque.fontChinatown Style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa4nKCpteKgRancid, Antennas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhFvktaub7k