TOLD YOU SO
TOLD YOU SO
Welcome to another week our archival studio visits. This week’s visit will be centered around the theme ‘I told you so’. One of the amazing aspects of having the opportunity to exercise creativity is that it puts the artist closer to the pulse and vibration of what’s going on and maybe sometimes even ahead of the game. All of these featured pieces represent that. All of the work featured in this grouping were a bit forward-leaning for their time, but super relevant now. At the time we were imagining kinda dark futures.
We don’t really create in that vain these days. I guess you needed to be where you were at to get to where you are now. If that was super confusing, just know that you are here 🙂
All of these pieces are available hit us up if interested mz@mzicar.com
THOTS ON ARCHIVING
THOTS ON ARCHIVING
I’m not going to lie. We spend a lot of time running around like our heads are cut off. This quarantine time has been a good moment for us to collect our thoughts, align with purpose, get our inventory together and just take a breath.
Before world war COVID broke out we had a chance to get up with our friends and visit the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture for a talk on archiving. They were specifically discussing hip hop journalists archiving, under the overarching theme of archiving Black culture. As collage artists and magazine junkies, this was so up our alley. Funny enough we happened to be in the middle of our own archiving process. We were painstakingly going through all of Junkprint’s old work categorizing measuring, storing and pricing all work to make all pieces available for purchase. Because after all if it hasn’t been archived did it even exist? And if you are relying on social media networks to create your archives keep in mind, it’s rough to build your house on other people’s property.
This time of isolation allowed us not only time to work on new pieces, but It also allowed us space and time to carefully curate video studio visits. Each week we will be pulling between 3-5 pieces of artwork and explaining the context and process of creation and how they came to exist. This group of work will be a combination of Junkprints archives as well as new Mz. Icar work.
We will be releasing the videos on YouTube, IGTV, and here every Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. Enjoy the first one below
TYPE PLAY
TYPE PLAY
We spend a lot of time playing and working on studies. Many of our projects require experimentation as they are quite tactile. We love the digital world…but real life in where it’s at, touch something fuzzy, taste something sweet, hug a tree small some plants and gaze upon something shiny in real-life, that kind of thing. These are some recent manifestations of that play. They do not have a purpose, application or home per se but one of our members has been musing about a clothing line. it’ all TBD, but in the meantime here’s some manifestations of that play.
WE STILL LOVING: TYPE EDITION
WE LOVE: TYPE EDITION
We have been pretty enamored by the powerful work of Tré Seals over at Vocal Type Co. Often in design, the biases of the author are ever-present in the final outcome. This is a very blind sided design flaw that can result in (intentional and unintentional exclusion) underrepresentation. The industry of design and specifically typography is maaaad white manish. This is resulting in a momo perspective in letter organization and presentation. Vocal type is filling the Gap and giving is life This foundry has released retail typefaces and created custom type inspired by historical icons of color.
We love all of this and it resonates with some of the latest projects we have been working on. We just wrapped up some custom lettering for Machel Montano’s Machel Monday. Which happens to be today and also happens to be a celebration of his nuptials. yo! It is seriously a love fest over here. Our work is used in the flyers promotional video as well as the tickets. We loved having the opportunity to work on this. Ya’ll over at Hasely stadium, buss a wine for us.
WE LOVE
WE LOVE
The other day our homie Kendra from ‘I wanna hear pod’ put us on to Curbed’s, Nice Try Utopia podcast. Of course, we were all over it. World-building and reimagining the past and future is so our thing. The first episode is about Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America. The podcast goes on to debunk the romantic version of this story told in our history books as well as a contextual of the ‘why’s and how’s’. The one thing that really stood out to me was the part in which these colonizers just lose the fuck out of their humanity. They are starving they start slaughtering indigenous folks and eventually start burning down their own fort for firewood and digging up corpses and eating them. Right when they are about to leave, the company that commissioned the mission demands they stay, sends a whole bunch more Englishmen, kidnapped some folks from Angola, forced slavery and thus America. Honestly, you have to listen to this podcast, this is just a lil summary. They go in. Anyhoot, that stayed with me because origin stories have weight and in this case, if the folks who ‘settled’ America were so far gone to begin with, one could only imagine what 400 years later would look like. I mean these dudes were bat shit crazy. They needed to be getting hugs a warm meal and some trauma therapy so they could stop terrorizing the indigenous folks and get they minds rights. Nope, that didn’t happen, they just ate folks and started a nation instead.
Soooooo that got is thinking about the impact of simply loving up on each other. Like for real love, not ownership, or possessiveness. The type of love that sees oneself in another. That’s open to listening and understands how to support and be an advocate. I know, I know it sounds mad mushy, well it is, the point is to feel good. Full belly full heart etc. So we decided that we are gonna share with you things/situations we love. Cuz it’s February and those lil naked violent flying babies want us to spread love, it’s the Brooklyn way and we’re like Oprah, we love a lot and we have stellar taste. After all, our thots matter.
A couple of our members had the honor of creating an engagement video for J Mandela and Shea. We took a lil road trip, upstate, encountered some racism, loved up on some plants and highlighted the love between these two. We love the way it came out and are super duper happy about this wedding.
We love Millennium Skate rink in Camden NY, I almost don’t want to share my love of this place because I’m afraid y’all might blow it up and all its charms will be lost. So, this is what we love about it. It’s black-owned meaning that the music and vibe are centric to the black community…you won’t hear any pop music even on kids skate sessions. It’s black on black on black. It’s reasonably priced and we get our souls on the rink.
We got portraits taken. We are so fly. We love us. Here’s the back story on this masked bandit crew shot. Folks keep asking us about biopics and we tell ’em we are anonymous…and they are like ‘oh ok, can I get a bio pic?’ Le sigh, basically we really value IRL connections and feel that it is an honor and privilege to connect in the real world. As far as internet presence goes, we appreciate the interest, but we don’t know you bruh, just ‘like’ the work, vibe with us or keep it moving. Our likeness representation is not intended for content. We take our art real seriously and will not be tokenized of sexualized while doing it unless we initiate that.
We are full of love so we’ll continue to sprinkle some love posts throughout the thots.
YOU MAY SHOP NOW
We are constantly evaluating and exploring our relationship with commerce and capitalism and looking for alternative opportunities of exchange. some of this exploration has been why it’s been so long coming to getting an online store up.
I’ve been thinking a lot about what we as a society are looking for on the internet, and what we can’t we purchase or have a hard time obtaining and what we should be trying to obtain. That thot process leads me to the creation of these new cans. For me, the internet is another platform, another medium, and it’s a context in which to explore the relationship of people, their interactions and the way that we interact with the world.
We love solutions, we love the absurdity of old ads (and full disclosure can’t wait until our current ads become old these pharmaceutical commercials are out of control). we are very much so American (most apparent when we are out of the country but that’s a different post) and so inherently, we are obsessed with the notion of a very quick fix. We also love painting and have a ton of empty cans in the studio. It’s bad enough that were spraying all this aerosol into the world might as well make sure that we are upcycling.
Thus I present to you my latest collection intended for the internet.
This series wouldn’t be complete without having some type of real life experience and so we have made a quarter of each edition available on the streets. They will be done in the form of a scavenger hunt and/or We’ll be posting where these items are and they will be free and up for grabs.
Keep your eyes peeled and your ear to the streets.
If you aren’t all about running around these streets (which I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t be) you can also purchase editions on HERE
NOVEMBER 15TH
NOVEMBER 15TH HOLD THE DATE
What you up to on Friday, November 15th?
Well, you will be hanging with me at the ‘Dope Ever Since’ event in NYC.
I am super duper excited to announce my newest latest pop-up exhibition. It is taking place at a SECRET Chintatown location on November 15th between 7 p.m. 12a.m. One of the main agendas of Mz.Icar is to create and participate in engaging ‘real life’ experiences. Thanks to the movers and shakers at Lost Art BK, we have been able to team up with some musicians and creatives to do just that.
This night promises to be a fun exhibition, with live music performances. Space is extremely limited if you plan on coming please RSVP there is a tight capacity…you have been warned. The event is free with RSVP and if space permits, there may be a fee at the door.
In other news of growth and expansion, I have started to figure out my relationship with commerce and I and will have art for sale at this exhibition. and wait there’s more, I will launch the long-awaited Mz. Icar webstore on Nov. 15th. If you have any specific pieces in mind please get at me to make arrangements for purchase. Hope to see you soon.
PRESS RELEASE:
For one special night in NYC, LABK brings you “Dope Ever Since,” the live music/art installation event for all tastemakers & connoisseurs of everything dope, fly & fresh.
D.E.S brings together a tribe of artists, aligned on the same vibration of creating original artistic works for the mass appeal. In collaboration with the uber talented visual artist, Mz. Icar (@mz.icar), the space will be set for embracing the night & inhaling the moment. It’s going to be a jam packed night with DJ Tough Dumplin behind the wheels steering the ship. D.E.S will feature live music performances from two of illest hip hop acts out of Brooklyn right now: Bedstuy’s favorite brothers – DJ Jahmedicine & O-Boogie will set the tone for the night. And the following set will elevate the moment featuring the emcee: Rashid Amir, guest starring legendary producer- Ski Beatz as the conductor.
SPARK
SPARK...THEN SHOOT
My latest endeavor has been on love, joy, beauty, elation and inner peace. Its thrown a wrench in my process of using old imagery to collage and reconstruct ideologies. That being said, this new theme has forced me to create new works from the ground up. I realize that in this day and time there just aren’t many fabulous images of black people being joyous and peaceful. Now my mission is to create that.
As a collective, We take image making very seriously. Our talents range the professional art fields of photography videography, advertising, marketing, street and fine art.
One of the things that continue to emerge is the changing industry, how creators such as producers and art directors are either getting laid off or lost in the shuffle. Companies are looking to do things more efficiently to save money. We know that cutting the organizers doesn’t necessarily save money. We see how shoots run over time, how the industry wants more complicated content, and the day is only so long. Basically, the shoots are too cumbersome for the lack of direction.
We sat down, we bitched about how shoots used to be more fun, smoother and just had a better direction. Although it seems we can technologically do more, and the capabilities are endless we’re getting really confuzzled about how to go about it. We feel as though things are in flux to meet the demands of social media, the demand for more. It’s stressing us out. Luckily, we’re not the types to sit, complain, fart and scratch our butts all day. We decided to plan a shoot and basically remind ourselves what we’re working with. How super we are. That we have the answers to trifle with a demanding industry that wants more.
We had a creative direction in mind and got our main Mz. behind the camera. The goal was to optimize logistics for the shoot to be seamless, timely and fun. And we did it! Their is minimal retouching because Ediomi and Kat are fly to begin with.
Hope you enjoy. We did this completely in house all in a day, cuz we had to flex on them.
SOCA UNIVERSE
SOCA UNIVERSE SPECIAL PROJECT
Throughout my creative career there’s always been a synergy between the visual work that I make and music. I’ve noticed that I consider my process similar to a hip hop producer or composer in general. Sourcing or creating imagery to be used for collage is in the vein of sampling an break beat. The thing they have in common is that they are a deliberate breaking down in order to reconstruct. Visual reconstruction is my jam. Every story has multiple perspectives and I feel like the medium of collage and deconstructing and reconstructing is the most immediate recognition that the author is giving you a perspective, it is in itself a medium that recognizes that there are various views, layers and ways to tell a story. I’m always dealing with pieces of imagery and putting them together. That seems to be the one common thread and everything that I do.
The energy of process seems to attract musicians. I’ve had the opportunity of my career to work with amazing musicians in all walks of life. This latest projects is really close to my heart. Machel Montano is pretty much the king of current-day soca and creative cover art for Soca Universe’s Vol 1 compilation is huge. Soca music and Calypso was an integral part of my upbringing. My mom’s side is from Belize, Central America and soca is King. Growing up in southern California it was very much so marginal music, but the sounds blaring from my grandmother’s house and every family gathering told a completely different story. I often crack jokes and call soca the techno or House of Caribbean music as it requires some serious stamina.
Oftentimes the iconography of our culture is created by an external entity. This project gave me the opportunity to be in the front of center of creating and example or option or celebration and how we see ourselves. I shot the image used at Trinidad’s carnival a few years back and when Machel’s camp approached me to do this project I was elated to do something that felt so close to home and pull some of the archival footage from that journey.
MS. LAURYN HILL SPECIAL PROJECT
MS. LAURYN HILL
I spent a good chunk of early this year and last year working on visuals for Miss Lauryn Hill’s 20th anniversary Miseducation World Tour. It was a life-changing experience to be able to work with such an iconic creative and one that has inspired me so much. It is a real honor and I am so grateful for the opportunity. Some of the images and things are still in the work so we can’t share it all but here’s a sneak peek of some of the things that we have been working on including graphics and designs for afrochella and merch for various pop up throughout the tour we were also very honored to be able to showcase our work in her curated digital exhibition across the world.
