In June 2004, the three founding members of GMSH, were invited to the Capitol Hill Arts Center in Seattle. The following images are the pieces that they completed for the show. < Back to the Gallery Shows

Capitol Hill Arts Center 1621 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122 t:206-388-0500

New York's Artist Collaborative Goldmine Shithouse Transcends Ego, Collaging Personalities and Styles To Stirring Effect

Interview by Anna Fahey

In 2003, three young artists wishing to avoid the tedium of Saturday nights in New York City, began to meet weekly, holing up in a studio, drawing together and passing their sketchbooks around rather than flinging themselves into the bump and grind of the City's weekend rituals. What spawned from these intense and regular sessions of creativity proved to have a bump and grind of its own. The simple gesture of passing sketchbooks around evolved into the genesis of large scale joint projects that all three artists worked on, added to, talked about, and tinkered with.

From their first cooperative experiment, Colin Burns, David Hochbaum, and Travis Lindquist knew that what they produced together was good. Revved up by the promise of their teamwork, they decided to continue and to make serious work as an established group. What was born was what the boys came to call Goldmine Shithouse, a unique artist collaborative that astoundingly transcends ego and allows for three (sometimes more) minds to meld and bounce off one another by turns depending on the mood. The results are jarring and stunning joint-authored works in paint, collage, sound, and concept. The work displays three artists' distinct sensibilities and styles formed over years as successful solo artists, tied together by a cohesive and infectious energy generated by the thrill of working often in a flurry or in inspired bursts, side by side.

The pace is indeed fast and furious. Rarely is there a master plan at the outset of a project. The Goldmine Shithouse (GMSH) work progresses organically. Decisions are democratic. Much of what Burns, Hochbaum, and Lindquist do is site specific–a gut reaction to a space or time, interwoven with recurring themes and images personal to each member or all three. Although GMSH is unafraid of work that deals with violent or difficult themes, collaborative studio work is equally impulsive, not belabored or weighted down by rhetoric. Though there's often a narrative, in each piece, and often, from piece to piece–a continuum of the group's ideas that threads throughout.

GMSH effectively digests and regurgitates cultural influences, often revealing the human plight as a tragic-comedy, whether manifested in collage and paint on wood or paper, in video, or in music–what GMSH calls "punk rock art noise." Murder Baby, the GMSH experimental band, is named after one of the group's first collaborative visual artworks and the visual work and sound work evolves in a similar manner–each member adding his part and riffing off and grooving to the others' contributions.

As preparations were being made for their appearance in Seattle in June, I asked Colin, David, and Travis to tell me more about the phenomenon called Goldmine Shithouse:

Anna: How did you get started?

David: Travis and I got together on a Sat. night over at Travis's studio in Brooklyn and just painted all night. We were so happy about the work so we planned to do it again next weekend. This next time we invited our good friend and my agent, Les Barany to come to see what we were up to. Again we felt so good about the work we were producing. Les shot video of the process and told us he thought it was great, and from Les, that ain't no bull.

So by the third week we decided to invite our friend and fellow alumni Colin to join. Now Colin I knew for a while in Boston and New York, but never spent to much time hanging out with besides going to the bar where he worked. But I knew his work. We felt his style would be a great touch to the work...and fuk yeah it was.

At the end of that Saturday we all agreed that this was the best way to spend a Saturday night in NYC.

Travis: There were a number of people that came to our Gay Art Night, that's what it was called then. When David and Colin and I painted together, all three of us realized the potential, we were just trying to avoid Saturday night crowds and do something productive. Working with other people helped us to realize how naturally we just understand each other's visions. It is really infectious; I couldn't wait for Saturdays. It just grew into what it is now, with a lot of hard work, but it happened in an organic way.

A: How has Goldmine Shithouse evolved?

Colin: The more we make art together, the more we get to know each other, the more we get to know each other's work. The entire process is like learning a secret language. It's like clicking with musicians the first time you ever play together. And retaining that spirit each time you play.

A: What are your motivations?

C: Our motivations? Pushing the work as far as it can go.

A: You say that you share a common sensibility but have opposing visions. Describe what you mean by this statement and how that tension works in the group dynamic.

T: All this means is that we all have these separate ideas in our head, and when something is brought into the GMSH by one of us, it's like you don't have to explain it, we all just get it.

D: Well, I guess it means we are all used to working on our own stuff doing different techniques. I've been doing collage and photography for the past 10 years and painting for just the past 3 years or so. When you mix it with what these 2 are doin', there's the opposing vision. splat. The tension can get thick with 3 artist wielding brushes around, ego city. It seems to work for us, no matter what we come out hugging and kissing in the end. Well we don't really kiss and Travis won't let me touch him, or look at him.

C: After the initial creative explosion, that tension is the group dynamic.

A: What are you producing? Describe the paintings/drawing/collage. Describe the foray into music?

D: We are making funny little stories. They are not like cartoons or comics 'cause they are so painterly but they have a very comical sense to them. They are like operas or plays to me. Dark and tragic but funny and humanistic. Psychedelic but not hippie more like blood cult.

C: The thing I like best about our work is that there's always a story. In each piece, and often, from piece to piece. The paintings themselves are beautiful, a little scary, funny. We're making paintings I've been waiting my life to see.

T: We are prolific as hell; in Chicago we worked for nine or ten days and made over fifty painting collages. The group works like a band, in that the collaboration is an ongoing on like music. Murder Baby just happened, people were vibing off of our energy, and we want to share this. The songs become paintings, and vise versa, the band name came from one of our first paintings we did together.

A: Tell me about Murder Baby?

C: The first night we collaborated we made a painting called Murder Baby. I said that would be a great name for a band. I sing, David is a drummer, and Travis plays the theremin. A few weeks later we were playing with our friend Matt Martin on guitar and Chris Vitali on bass and approaching the music the same way we approached the painting, STONED AS A MOTHERFUCKER.

D: What he said.

A: How do your performances work? How does the music/sound aspect of the group mesh with the visual art aspect? Are these integrated?

T: The living in the space and creating the work while patrons and visitors come and go, gives a real insight to our creative process. David and Colin both really love hard fucked up rock; I am more of the mellow fucked up sort. When we play music together, it's just as infectious as the painting; we just go to the other place, sky below. It feels great to tear it up and make loud, ugly, funny music.

C: Murder Baby is a different and growing band each time we play live. Three is still the maximum number of guitarists we've played with at one time, but I'm seeing at least nine...

We started collaborating on Saturday nights, because Saturday nights suck in NYC. Murder Baby started playing on Sunday nights. Ideas from Saturday nights paintings ended up in Sunday's songs. And Sunday's songs began appearing in Saturday's paintings.

D: Yup

A: Who's in GoldMine ShitHouse?

D: Well, a lot of people have been involved in the GMSH and have made considerable contributions towards keepin' the shit alive. But like I said, the trio, Travis, Colin and I were the first 3 and most consistent...put the most devotion–getting materials, spreading the word, building websites, all the grunt work so to speak–the stuff that someone who is not as dedicated doesn't not want to be bothered with. So, we feel we are GMSH but we do work with other artists as well to share the experience of collaboration.

C: Who's in...? The three of us... Everyone...

T: There have been a lot of people that we have worked with, but it has really turned into just the three of us, that is what is just turned into. It's not like we don't want to work with anyone else, it's just how well it we work together. We all want to capitalize on this. All three of us are basically insane; we all have gravitation for dark things with humor, and an innate understanding of our aesthetic. I work is very different individually, but it melds together when we bring our heads together.

A: How do you work together?

D: Real good. Like butter...what?

C: The way we work together? Each one of us starts a piece and then passes it to the next person. That makes it sound so orderly. We are usually surrounded by new pieces hours after we get together. The hard part, the interesting part is finishing them.

D: I love working with these two. When we go to do a commission or a gallery show, I know that there is no real need to know what we are gonna do. Just get down to it and that feels great. No plan, no stress, not like how it is if I am doing a show of my own. We just jive on whatever each one of us happens to be into at the time.

A: Describe your personalities.

D: well don't ask them what they think about me..Humor is a big part of the work...we are goofball. I don't know what to say...we are not macho...we like to drink and get high and paint.

T: All three of us are basically insane; we all have gravitation for dark things with humor, and an innate understanding of our aesthetic. I work is very different individually, but it melds together when we bring our heads together.

A: What else do you do besides GMSH?

D: Well I have been doing my photography/mixed media work now for the past 10 years now. The GMSH is a pretty new project. It is very different from my own work but has helped enormously when going back to the studio to work on my own stuff.

C: I do my own work. I read. Take long walks along the beach. Look for a job.

T: I have been painting for the last ten or fifteen years, I got into digital video a few years ago as well. I worked on the Richard Linklater movie Waking Life, as an animator. We all bring these different elements to the table, and then we see where it goes.

A: Do you have a mission? A political agenda?

C: To burn Mount Dracula.

D: Not so sure as of yet. It seems to me right now I am still trying to understand what weare doing is all about without over analyzing it since it came to be in such a natural way. I'm afraid if I pick it apart it will take away the integrity of the work and destroy its organic properties. I think if there is a mission or agenda it will expose itself naturally without a conscious plan.

T: The mission is to make a living making our art. I think we are just trying to make the best art we can and let that influence other people's life.

There is no overt political agenda, but the work definitely makes a comment on the state of affairs of our world. This is just how we react to all the contradictions surrounding us. It gives us all an outlet, and people react to it.

A: You say you often deal in your work with violent or difficult themes. How do your views come out in the work? Do you feel you are being heard and understood? What is your audience?

T: Aloha from Murder Beach, Romance, Exercise, These are all truly disturbing images, but there is something fun and important about them. The world is in such a fucked up state that it is important do deal with the darkness out there. It makes it better in my head. People understand it, it's like in music when there are personal references, or private jokes, they transcend, people want a part of it.

D: A lot of the images are of death, the pursuit of death, witchcraft, faux-science, ghosts, or bizarre creatures including our human forms, which are usually contorted or strained. But I think people really react well to our work. Most folk can find the humor and/or relate to the images we are making. Our audience is all over the place in terms of age, style, what have you. Even some of the hipsters like our shit. Damn hipsters. So clean and well-kept-messy. Oh sorry. I'm going off on a tangent...

C: The emotion of the work is conveyed. The action of the work is conveyed. The humor. And there are shitloads of clues-but they don't necessarily lead to one place. Our audience is broad.

A: What other recent / current projects are you working on?

C: Limited edition books.

D: We want to get a giant mount Dracula to the Burning Man, fill it with paintings we make inside of it, play music in it then burn it all, except for the music equip. Unless we are sponsored and don't have to pay for it...

T: There is a lot on the table right now. We have a show in September of this year in NYC at the Metal Stone Gallery. We also have done a number of commissions in peoples houses, tailored to them personally, more of those would be good. The question is, what do you got?

A: What will you do in Seattle? How will the work evolve here?Is it already planned out or is the process more organic? Do you react to a space/place and work from that?

C: We just finished a show-so it's going to be very interesting to see how that affects the work. There were six months between our last two shows, this time about two weeks. It's different every time, but it's apparent to us how much it's changing. The last batch of work was our strongest. Our plan is to check out the space and to make the work accordingly. Figure out sizes and shapes, and go to it.

T: We all bring ideas to the group, then they turn into whatever they turn into, sometimes they stay true, other times they go in a totally different direction. We constantly make whatever is on the brain and allow anything to happen. In the end its just weather or not the piece works. If it isn't working then it must be killed, we do that democratically.

D: No plan...like always; just get the materials out and get to work. All the ideas are up there in our heads. It's overflowing, inspiration is endless and since we are in different towns with different people, it cant be the same as if we are in our own studios.

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