The Daily Cardinal recently spoke with Carlos Eduardo Gacharná, coordinator of the Hundred$ gallery reception that is taking place Dec. 7 on the fourth floor of 100 State Street from 6:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m.
What do you envision for Hundred$?
That depends on how far down the road you're looking, I suppose. In the short term, first and foremost we're hoping to create an event that's a really good time. I feel like one of the biggest issues Hundred$ is addressing is the reality that most art viewing events aren't all that fun or engaging. You walk around, eat some cheese, maybe make some small talk and you go home. Hundred$ is about creating an experience truly unique to the Madison art scene that people won't be forgetting about any time soon.
Which leads me to the long term goals. I see the show as a catalyst for uniting artists around the Madison area into one cohesive group that thrives on its own energy. There are a lot of cities with booming art communities, but as it stands Madison has yet to join their ranks. That's not to say Madison's not full of talent, we're just not organized. Hopefully with Hundred$ out the way, other artists will feed off the vibes to create their own shows and this dialogue will continue to happen.
Could you talk a bit about the origin of the event, as well as Zenxyth Collective?
Honestly, It all started throwing parties in high school. I attended six different schools within Madison so by senior year, I pretty much knew everybody my age. I'm kind of a lazy friend, so instead of seeing everybody individually I would just invite all the folks to come to my house and have a good time. As a result, we created this local community that spanned Madison's five high schools, more than 10 countries and 14 language barriers.
Connections, Zenxyth's first group show, came after I organized the RestART city-wide youth gallery expo. I work with a variety of age groups and this first show was all about bringing the kids and our community together for one night only of art, music and entertainment. For Connections, we expanded to a wide range of artists from all over the Madison area that could congregate in one space and share an experience, so as to corrode cultural barriers in an organic yet effective manner. We had everybody from Middleton High School to First Wave to members of our homeless community in attendance, and that's what the show was all about. Hundred$ is just taking the lessons we learned from Connections and executing it as well as we possibly can.
As for Zenxyth, Ashlyn Akins, Eli Lynch and I created the student org to provide resources and networking opportunities for Artists at the UW and all over the Madison area. We originally saw Zenxyth as a group of collaborators that created projects together like zines and mixtapes, but nothing so rigid came out. What did come out was a network of independently motivated individuals that all shared a vision of creating an expansive community of artists. So, instead of creating art together, we built a pedestal for everybody to place their work next to each other and meet their fellow artists/community.
What will students see if they attend the event?
I like to think they will see the face of our young local art community. I don't want to ruin any surprises, but with over 30 artists on board there will be plenty to be entertained and engaged by, whatever people are into. Granted, this is our show and we're running it based on our rules, so expect to see a very raw form of artistic expression to surface. More than one elephant in the room will be painted neon pink, if you will.
How do you view opportunity within the UW art scene currently? How do you see events like Hundred$ impacting it?
I think there is plenty of opportunity to create work within the UW art scene. We have great facilities and the faculty is supportive, but what we really lack is a proper outlet for our efforts. The vast majority of art shows I see taking place in Madison revolve around the Art Lofts or at small coffee shops. Yet, as someone who spends most of their day in the art lofts or searching for caffeine, I've never really felt satisfied that these shows really represented Madison's 'art scene'. Most people don't even know the art lofts exist and you can only fit so many people in a coffee shop, so how could a successful artist community hope to revolve around these two options? My hope for Hundred$ is that we will succeed on such a high level that Madison will never be able to revert to this point. I've spent a lot of time creating tools such as written budgets and schedules that other people can then use as examples to organize their own events, even if they don't necessarily revolve around art. There's plenty of resources in Madison, its just time that people learned how to apply them.
What is the most rewarding part of being involved in an independent-minded gallery?
What can I say, I always enjoyed being a thorn in authority's side! By operating independently from traditional galleries but still within a comparable space (100 State housed the old Children's Museum) we can essentially use the same tools and language they do to undermine all of the failing points we see in their system. Let me know the next time you see break dancing and live body painting in a formal gallery, I'll be pleasantly surprised.
All the details can be found on Facebook. Tickets are free.
