Love the artwork on our upcoming Rio 2 album? Well – you can thank assume vivid astro focus (avaf) for donating this eye-catching image of a Brazilian favela.
OK – if you’re like me and you’ve been hiding under a rock and had never heard of avaf, (he’s been dazzling the art world with his exuberant, visually spectacular room-size installations since 1994) you might be wondering – what is avaf? Artist assume vivid astro focus — the name derives from two musical sources: Throbbing Gristle‘s album Assume Power Focus, and the band Ultra Vivid Scene — is both an alias of Brazilian-born New York-based artist Eli Sudbrack, and the name of an international group of visual and performance artists that earned renown for their raucous multimedia installations.
Born in 1968 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, avaf moved to New York in 1998. He works in a wide variety of media, creating wallpaper designs, music videos, large-scale installations, t-shirt designs, and floor stickers. He has had more than 100 solo exhibitions at renowned galleries and museums around the world: São Paulo, Paris, Los Angeles, New York, to name a few; been featured in magazines: L’Uomo Vogue, V Magazine, W Magazine; with a recently published book dedicated to his creations on Rizzoli Books.
So how did Red Hot get so lucky? Read on as producer, Béco Dranoff, explains.
Lorraine Goodman
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In the middle of 2010, John Carlin (art critic and Red Hot’s founder) and I (Red Hot’s music producer) had a very cool meeting with Brazilian artist assume vivid astro focus (avaf) at his Brooklyn studio. John and I had been in touch with avaf for many months and always wanted to use his eclectic imagery and designs to envelop the Red Hot + Rio 2 project. We were searching for an image that was strong, current and very Brazilian that would resonate with a worldwide audience (as is the case with Brazilian music). Tropicália’s main credos are exchange, appropriation, mutation, adaptation and globalization. Therefore the movement’s currency today, almost 40 years after it surfaced in Brazil in the 60’s.
At avaf’s loft, the conversation turned into the project’s musical focus and it’s relevance in modern pop music and global culture. avaf has been creating and mashing up images and ideas since the early 90’s and his visual concepts and designs seemed like the perfect fit for us. During that meeting John and I eyed a very large framed piece that was leaning against the wall – the image striked both of us. It showed a typical Brazilian favela hut – a cardboard and ply wood hand-made construction that could be seen as an installation, if it wasn’t for the dark reality of its existence. What was exciting to us was that avaf was able to recreate that favela image in a way that it looked like a castle in some ‘magic kingdom’, like there was music and a powerful positive force emanating from that shack.
To me as a Brazilian, the image encapsulated many levels of our project: the strength and resilience of Brazilian people, the unwavering faith in a better future, the joy for life, and the ability to transform bad things into something better. Visually, avaf was able to manipulate the image, adding beauty to a very harsh reality that still plagues our country. The colorful flags, the blue sky, the pieces of leftover Carnaval costumes… the high’s and the low’s of life in Brazil.
John and I asked about the possibility of using that image as our cover and avaf immediately agreed to donate his rights to the Rio 2 project. He then put us in touch with designer Kleber Matheus, a long time collaborator with the avaf collective, whom had just designed the large book on avaf’s work published by Rizzoli. Kleber and I met in São Paulo in January 2011 and I expressed to him all our thoughts and wishes for the artwork.
We couldn’t be more honored to have this amazing visual piece as our record cover!! avaf and his ultra-talented and visionary team are creating some of the most groundbreaking work today and bringing modern Brazilian culture to the forefront of the art world. Obrigado avail!!
Béco Dranoff
NY / April 2011
For more avaf info and images: www.cheapcream.com
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