FAKE, an experimental New York publisher that specialises in multi-sensory media, has released its fourth edition, Mask vs Persona. Each edition of FAKE has consisted of a high-quality vinyl accompanied by a physical printed zine. With the unabashedly camp photography of Parker Day, however, Mask vs Persona is distinctive from the cool grit of its predecessors.
Cristiano Grim founded the FAKE publishing house to bring to life a multi-sensory experience hard to find elsewhere, and even hard to get produced elsewhere. “Many publishers ask, is this a record or a zine? All they care about is how much money they can make out of you, and how they can use you to fill up their catalogue.” For Grim, the production of an art object is a sort of “liminal gate” that unites so many craftsmen and artists into one: “I also like working and spending my time with printmakers, vinyl factory workers, paper suppliers, audio engineers, photo lab workers, not as simple transmitters of content, but [citing Giles Deleuze], “machinic assemblages” that shape perception, desire, and power dynamics.”
A master of representing American archetypes, Los Angeles photographer Parker Day’s character vignettes are the meat of FAKE4. “I’ve been a big fan of Parker since forever,” says Grim, and he reached out to her to meet when he was in LA — a lunch at a vegan restaurant that they both fondly recalled. “[S]he arrived in her purple Mustang, sick outfit, Russ Meier style! We talked for hours, discovering we share many similar influences: our love for Last Gasp, obsession with Charles Gatewood, passion for film props and medium format, David Lynch, John Waters.”
Their ensuing correspondence over the years led to Grim reaching out to Day to collaborate on the project, whose title captures the wealth of irreverent and intriguing personas that make up Day’s oeuvre. “It’s kind of funny that Cristiano named it mask versus persona, because the Latin root of ‘persona’ is a mask. The mask used on stage had a piece in the mouth through which sound was projected so that it could be heard in the cheap seats in the [Roman] theater. So that’s my bottom line,” explains Day. “There is no true ego itself. All personas are a mask.”
Many artists have made subverting Americana their artistic fascination, but Day’s approach to American satire is particularly unafraid to be garish and vulgar. Using the visual opportunities of a print zine, free from online censorship, Day explores the full disgusting possibilities of the human body as canvas; full page spreads of nude models painted as a circus animal, a hunk of processed deli meat, and a crawling goblin among others. Day explains that an aim of her work is to not to smooth over the “grotesque form” of the human body, but to honour it. And you cannot scroll away — their obscene glory is printed physically before your eyes, being held in your hands. “I got some notoriety, you could say, over Instagram, because my images are very arresting, and it definitely stopped people scrolling,” explains Day. “But I think they tend to be perceived more at the shock level on a device — and then you scroll past it. Whereas in print, it gives the opportunity to the viewer to look in deeper, more closely, and have this kind of intimate, slow relationship.”
Since Parker Day is from LA, Grim chose to select existing demos from LA’s underground scene, such as punk-electronic musicians Machino and Foie Gras. The dark, atmospheric vinyl soundtrack was at times almost too beautiful that it felt discordant with the magazine’s kitsch candy-coloured visuals. But to Grim, there was no such contrast: “Parker’s photos are often minimized as camp, but they’re far deeper and more complex,” he says. “I see a classic approach in her choice of posing. She grew up in the comic book shop of her father, and the characters she creates are loaded with heroism. Heroes wear masks. She’s a punk, anti-establishment to the core… the music I selected considered that and beyond.”
I was particularly a fan of Side A of the vinyl, which features three darkwave tracks that emphasize the sinister aura lurking in Day’s otherwise zany, colourful photographs. The soundtrack brought out the thoughtful and sharply critical spirit of her photos, indeed letting something deeper than just the carnivalesque be observed. There is something to be said for Grim’s approach to experiential consumption; what you hear can draw out or highlight a different aspect of what you see.
FAKE4: Mask vs Persona is many things, but most of all, it playfully inspires reflection on the way we consume art —- the different affordances of each medium, and the depth of feeling achieved by each of our senses. How immune to shock and discomfort are we, really, when we must sit with an image longer than a few seconds? “In this ‘click-and-go’ society, waiting is sexy,” says Grim. “You have to be patient and sit with your feelings. You wait for USPS to deliver it. You wait for the time and place to consume it. You can’t skip it. It’s there in front of you, taking you in. I like the smell of it, the imperfections, the permanent damnation of words and images on paper, the fate of music on vinyl: irreversible.”
Milena Pappalardo is a writer and artist based in Toronto and Montreal. She completed her Hon. Bachelor in Political Science at the University of Toronto. She loves to write about the political and psychoanalytic undercurrents of fashion, art and culture.