Hi Fructose 4 Book Review

Founded by artists Daniel Seifert (who goes by 'Attaboy') and Annie Owens, 'Hi Fructose' is a quarterly print magazine. The magazine was first produced in 2005 and artists had the intention of showcasing artwork from 'New contemporary, emerging as well as distinguished artists'. It's an amalgamation of artists worldwide with contrasting styles and themes, sort of like an encyclopedia for the viewer to explore. The magazines have been in production for years, with Collectors Edition Box Sets being made from editions of the book. The book I received is Edition 4, focusing on 13-16 editions of the magazine. It also includes Stickers and prints from a few artists in the edition, which I was excited by. The introduction is written by John Law, who's involvement in New York's underground culture for the past 39 years makes him the perfect advocate to introduce the reader, immersing them in the world of Hi-Fructose and its diverse community. I enjoyed reading about his childhood growing up in Michigan, which he described as being the perfect smalltown playground, with most of his time spent fishing and exploring- that was until he stumbled into the weird and wonderful world of bizarre tales and fantastical books. He described them as 'lurid poisonous mushrooms' which is a stark contrast from the smalltown beauty of Michigan he'd been used to for so many years. Since entering the world, his addiction has continued into later life, with such books inspiring his own art. I loved reading of his passion for the artwork in this book, but also his view that the art isn't to everyone's taste, you can tell his opinions are genuine and he knows that throughout the book, the reader will be thrown into a whirlwind of surreal, imaginative, whimsical and very expressionistic art. In this post, I want to share a selection of the artists I liked and can relate to, and give my opinions on the book overall.

Hi Fructose Edition 4 Box Set

Located in the middle of the book (Pages 109 to 117) is the 'Capturing Nature' section by artist Gregory Euclide and written by Kirsten Anderson. Euclide creates landscape sculptures using mixed media. With naturally collected materials such as pine cones and feathers, he depicts his adoration for nature in a three dimensional way. Being an established artist, he has nothing to prove therefore can create art without influence from anyone telling him to cater to a specific genre or audience. I see them as a visual depiction of overly vivid dreams, they are aggressively unaltered and have no soul purpose, other than maybe to challenge the viewer perception of what classifies as art. At first, I saw it as a way to promote the audience to see the beauty in nature and what can be created. 

Growing up in a rural landscape not far from Minnesota, his adoration for the outdoors clearly stemmed from his childhood inspired freedom and expression in his artwork. I like his use of mixed media, seeing ways to create a landscape from pine cone scales, leaves and moss and mixing them with traditional wet media like watercolour to add depth in the background, creating a base layer to add to. In relation to the way I work, I appreciate the way he builds up a landscape, looking at making all aspects of the foreground and background harmonise, creating a piece that flows well; the viewers could easily get lost in the intricate details of the landscape.  

Gregory Euclide

Another artist that caught my attention was Kiel Johnson, an artist and sculpture who creates large installations which have been displayed in exhibitions worldwide. His installations are inspired by his early infatuation with traditional machinery, such as the printing press, referring to it as 'The godfather of communication'. As part of an exhibition entitled 'Publish or Perish', he used the framework of the printing press to intertwine a repeating illustration around, which is simply described by Johnson as a drawing of everything he owns on one giant page. The illustration is similar to those of a comic book, with graphic elements. The level of detail in this piece is incredible, he's literally included everything he owns; comprising of desks, mechanical tools and odd household objects. The approach is so simple and shows his life and personality in an unrefined way. This goes for most of the artists in this book, they're all so individual with unique styles that have no relation to a specific theme or genre. A lot of the artists I admire look at their audience and create artwork that has a more prominent purpose, children's enjoyment through storytelling, for example. These artists don't strike me as wanting their work to be mass-produced or loved by everyone, they create art for themselves and benefit from like-minded people enjoying them too. 

Kiel Johnson

Looking more broadly at the overall book, I quite like how each artist has a large section to immerse the reader in their individual world before being transported to an entirely new one. It's almost jarring with so many artists however I think it's good that they didn't as more artists and kept about 5 pages for each as it would've been confusing to keep track of if there were more artists. The book has been well designed with every artist using fonts associated with their brand, with the Hi Fructose font used for the main body of text. By using the same text throughout it adds continuity. Being a keen lover of binding and books, I like the high-quality paper and hardback binding, it makes it look more substantial (probably necessary to hold the 350 pages of artists!). Overall I was very happy to receive this book and have used it for artist research; I aim to look further into the art of Rob Sato who caught my eye with his illustrative style. I enjoy looking at alternate styles I wouldn't usually look at as it pushes you out of the genre you're used to, giving you a new perspective.

Rob Sato