Amid the sensory overload of William Downs’s 2014 show of drawings presented by Dashboard Co-op, what should I espy but some found-art samurai’s fist altered by Downs through the simple addition of several protruding lines that ran parallel to the figure’s forearm.
My immediate suspicion: Wolverine?
Of course, someone less burdened by comic-book iconography than I am might have reached another, more history-based conclusion. But one reason I later decided that I wanted to interview Downs was his eclectic admixture of imagery, evocative of artists from Egon Schiele to Clive Barker. Another was his approach to materials, namely repurposed paper (including recent work done on pages from a primer in Chinese, part of a trove that had once done duty at a place called the Sun Yat Sen School) and China markers.
In this 7-minute excerpt from their hour-long session, Ed and William talk about his artistic influences, Baltimore, and hoodies.
BURNAWAY’s audio program is supported in part by Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. Georgia Council for the Arts also receives support from its partner agency, the National Endowment for the Arts.
This project is supported in part by the Georgia Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities and through appropriations from the Georgia General Assembly.
