Michael Hawkins

In August 2008, young visual communicator Michael Hawkins, who is based in Cambridge, England, spent a month in our Mango Tree House. En route, he helped us develop a partnership with New York's Gershwin Hotel. And while here, he jumped bridges in Sugarloaf, swam with sea turtles over the reef, collaborated with jazz musicians, installed a new mural at the Armory, and took best set design in our One Night Stand 24-hour theatre project. Hawkins returned to the United Kingdom with a rich connection to our island community, and a sense that something special is happening at the Southernmost Point. TSKW executive director, Eric Holowacz, conducted this follow-up interview with the artist by email...


Holowacz: We are still in our first year of founding our visiting artist program, and you and a few others are serving as pioneers. Coming from so far away, and for the first time, what were your early ideas of Key West?

Hawkins: My first impression was off. I made the mistake that I am sure a lot of people do, when they arrive for the first time...I ended up fraternising in the touristy part of upper Duval street, with outsiders among the tacky bars and t-shirt shops. That whole part of town seemed rather culturally deprived, and more of a gimmick than a genuine spectacle. Being searched for firearms upon entering one establishment was an unusual experience...though I quickly found out the real key West was quite different to all this.

Holowacz: Did you study up or read about our island in planning your residency?

Hawkins: Yes. It made for interesting reading. Key West seems to have always drawn interesting and eccentric people who are not concerned with conventional standards of living, and I really like that. And I love the stories about the scuppering of passing ships, you call them wreckers. The salvaging expeditions and the resultant profiteering, making the town rich at one point, so that the island's infastructure was in on the game.

Holowacz: August is usually a slow time in Key West, but you managed to get involved in all sorts of creative and social activities. Recount some of your favorite experiences while here.

Hawkins: Camping on Dry Tortugas was like another world to me. Live action painting at Midsummer Nights Dream, while Skipper Kripitz and and company laid down the soundtrack, that was a blast. Another One Night Stand was a very special project that brought together local writers, directors, artists as well as actors and actresses for an intense period of collaboration. I felt honoured to be a part of the collaborative spirit here.

Holowacz: A major aspect of your residency involved the creation of a 15-foot panel that is now on view in the Armory stairwell. It employs your unique graphic style and visual language. Tell us what went into "The Great Promise," as this newest mural is now called.

Hawkins: On coming to the island I have been reading a lot of work by Swiss psychoanalyst and sociologist, Erich Fromm. In works such as The Art of Loving and To have or to be, Fromm articulates the challenges facing post-modern man with a great depth of insight and sensitivity. The mural is a visual interpretation of some of Fromm's ideas. It is the first in what will eventually become a tryptych with the amassed title: The Great Promise/ Its Failure/ New Alternatives.

The Great Promise represents the grandeur of the industrial age and celebrates its marvelous technological and intellectual achievements. It acknowledges the interwining of spirituality with science and how technological advances -especially in the realm of communication have promised us a more interconnected planet. It also looks at a few of our age's promises: unlimited progress, the domination of nature, material abundance, the substitution of the computer for the human mind and the machine for animal and human energy. These promises seem to suggest that we will become more like gods...and consequently, that we are due a great amount of happiness to the greatest number of our people.

The piece now installed at the Armory is a celebration. The next, Its failure, will be a critique. It didnt feel right to do the second part in key West this time around...which in my opinion has a large amount of its population informed and aware of some of the troubles that face us over the next few hundred years. I want to do its failure somewhere where people need to appreciate its message more; like New York.

Holowacz: On your way here, you spent 5 days in New York. In advance of your arrival, The Studios of Key West was able to forge a new partnership with the owner of the Gershwin Hotel, a creative accommodation, with its own milieu, near Tin Pan Alley. This short stay afforded you a launching pad into the city's arts scene. Tell us about those five days, and your first sojourn in the Big Apple.

Hawkins: It was great. I did the rounds and had a wonderful host in Suzanne, the hotel's owner who has long supported artists in the city. I took in the Chelsea art district, the MoMA, the Met, the Guggenheim. I talked to a few galleries and made a few connections which could be useful for the future...learnt a lot about the art world during my short time there. I realized, in a sort of epiphany, that if I want to make a living and therefore a career out of being an artist (which I do), then I need to start thinking big. As in large paintings that sell for major money. You've got to actually go out there and foot it with the big boys. Of course you've got to have something to say and a way to say it that resonates for people first, but i think I've got that part sorted.

Holowacz: You are presently based in Cambridge, England, and making the rounds of European cultural centers and gallery networks. Tell us about your work and projects there.

Hawkins: I recently completed a collaboration with The Curwen Studio...an artists' printmaking studio who have a rich history of artists' limited editions here. We collaborated on six editions, which have now been picked up by London's Eyestorm gallery for representation. That said, as an outsider coming to the UK and trying to crack the art world, it has been a good challenge so far.

My next project is a cross-disciplinary collaborative residency, with a group called the Betabeat Collective in the South of France come October. This will probably culminate in a music/action collaboration act with one of the musicians I meet there. It will be something that builds on the work I did at the Midsummer Night's event in Key West, and previously at the arts centre in Wellington, New Zealand.

Holowacz: At 26, you are one of the younger visiting artists to be hosted by TSKW. You grew up in New Zealand, and made an impression on the art scene there before moving to the UK last year. Describe your development Down Under, and the things you were involved in as an emerging Wellington-based artist.

Hawkins: During my time in Wellington I worked full time as an Art and Art History teacher, all the while maintaining a studio at the city's new arts centre and working energetically around that to develop new projects. One, The Rise of the Creative Economy was a site-specific work, placed in the middle of Wellington's Civic Square and Town Hall, which comprised a white shipping container covered in my visual messages and symbology. It was an attempt to celebrate the local creative industry in Wellington, at a time when things were really taking off for a lot of people. Peter Jackson had just finished Lord of The Rings and was starting on his King Kong remake; bands were taking off; and there was a feeling among the creative community that a lot of opportunities were starting to show themselves for more and more people. The imagery on the shipping container reflected the city's local creative industry, and the inside became a makeshift gallery. It held close to a hundred boxes, also painted white then covered in creative imagery and slogans....as if ready for export. The work was placed in the main square opposite the Wellington City Gallery, the main contemporary art institution there. It was a great spot for The Rise of the Creative Economy.

Another project entitled the Rock Show, was part of the Wellington Fringe Festival. It involved a collaboration between a local indie-band The Resistance, and myself. They played live, as I performed three large-scale action paintings inside a gallery. It was the birthseed of what took place at Midsummer Nights Dream, during my first week in Key West.

Holowacz: Key West is a unique place, with an attitude and philosophy much different than the American mainland. What is your take on the social and cultural milieu down in the Conch Republic.

Hawkins: It made a huge impression on me. There is an acceptance and celebration of difference on the island that puts many other places in the world to shame. I love the fact that a lot of people have come to the island from somewhere else, with the intent to stay for a short time, and find themselves still here 20 years later. There is something romantic about that, the way the place holds onto people and keeps them happy.

Holowacz: Who are your influences and what creative figures, environments or movements were important to your development as an artist?

Keith Haring has always been a great role model in terms of the way he has gone about his work and life. Growing up in New Zealand, as a standard Kiwi kid, enabled me to experience a genuine connection with nature and the land. It's just something about New Zealand's rural and agrarian base. I now realize that a lot of people live their lives completely disenfranchised from the earth and have no relationship with the natural world. As I travel the world, this aspect seems special...and important to who I am.

Holowacz: Now that you are back in England, what are the three things you miss most about our small island?

Hawkins:
1. The people. To everyone who made my stay special, thank you...you guys rock.
2. Snorkeling, almost every day...and Fort Zach.
3. The weather...yes really. My summer ended when I got to back to England. I heart sunshine, and Key West has it.

Lorenzo Buhne

TSKW’s first musician-in-residence reflects on his stay in Key West

In May 2008, New Zealand-based Italian musician Lorenzo Buhne became one of the first artists-in-residence at The Studios of Key West. Spending one month in the Mango Tree House, an Old Town cottage now dedicated to hosting visiting artists and cultural producers, Buhne soaked up the island's sights, sounds, and flavors, and came away with an entirely new portfolio of influences and songs. TSKW executive director Eric Holowacz sat down with Buhne, before the musician returned to the Southern Hemisphere, and they shared these thoughts...


Holowacz: This was your first experience with our community. What were your impressions or ideas of Key West before you first touched down in the Conch Republic?

Buhne: Just before coming to Key West, I had been finishing up a new album in Los Angeles, and had little time to reflect on the adventure that was upon me. I did however consult a world Atlas and was intrigued and excited to find Key West's proximity to the Caribbean, Cuba, and the tropics. It was all new to me, and I had no idea what to expect.

Holowacz: You arrived just before the 26th Conch Republic Independence Day celebrations. Did you partake in any of the revelry?

Buhne: Yes, I did! We was fortunate enough to meet Guy De Boar, and score a cruise on his catamaran. We began circumnavigating the island, and little did I know that I was about to be involved in a naval battle! We celebrated the annual Conch Republic patriotic fight for freedom by throwing wet balls of bread at other boats, all in good fun, and watched passing planes drop toilet paper on a defenseless Coast Guard vessel. I went home absolutely drenched, but ever more intrigued by your community.

Holowacz: Tell us about your recent music projects, and inspirations.

Buhne: Most of my musical career was spent playing punk music, back when I was based in Los Angeles. It was a big change for me about 10 years ago when I tried experimenting with different genres, expanding my influences. My childhood was spent in Naples, Italy, and all of a sudden I found myself singing the music of my youth, and songs from my family. Just before coming to The Studios of Key West, I finished my second album, entirely in Italian. It's called Buon Giorno.

Holowacz: You are among the first to become artist-in-residence here at The Studios of Key West. Can you describe how it went, and what you got out of it?

Buhne: Being a part of the TSKW campus was refreshing, comforting, and a bit of an adventure. I can't explain it fully, but the residency truly helped me grow as an artist. I realized how much work I can do when I am in the right environment, isolated, undisturbed, and removed from daily responsibilities. It was a blessing, really. Being an artist at the Studios also increased my confidence to learn and try new things with my music. For the first time in ages, I experienced the freedom to let go. I had all the time, space, and privacy I needed to experiment. I realized a kind of hidden potential, and the lovely surrounds and supportive artists environment provided me plenty of inspiration.

Holowacz: Did you have a chance to connect with local musicians and artists in Key West?

Buhne: Eric introduced me to quite a few creative people, among them Skipper Kripitz, an extraordinary Key West drummer. We got along well and he invited me to perform in between sets, and I sat in on many of his club gigs. Through him, I was able to meet quite a few other local musicians, which helped me soak up the island's musical vibes. Skipper and I now have forged a friendship that will continue long after my residency, and I know we will collaborate in some way in the future.

Holowacz: What were the 3 highlights or major memories from your time here?

Buhne: Having the time and space to think and create, simple as that. Playing with local artists and beginning a collaboration with TSKW’s other visiting artist, painte Mike Lash. My personal encounter with a manatee and a mangrove iguana at Key Haven!

Holowacz: Did any new creative work come out of your TSKW residency?

Buhne: After I arrived ideas flowed immediately. And that was so exciting. During my month-long stay I wrote 19 songs, more than enough to do a full CD project. The inspiration came purely from my experiences of the local culture, and the particular ethos at Mile Marker Zero. In fact, I have decided to call my next CD “Cayo Hueso” in honor of my time in such a special place. I also began a collaboration with my fellow other artist-in-residence, Mike Lash, which will bear fruit over the coming year.

Holowacz: What are the first 3 things you'll do once you get back to your home in Wellington, New Zealand?

Buhne: Be with my family. Work on my new Key West material and finish those songs. Repeat steps 1 and 2.

Holowacz: What will you miss most about our small, tropical island?

Buhne: The new friendships, the warm weather, swimming at Fort Zach, the great food, time working alone, afternoon bucci, Duval Street at night, and interacting with the other artists and stellar staff at The Studios of Key West. When I leave this island, it will be remembered as an enchanted dream.

Holowacz: If you could make a few suggestions for the next incoming artist-in-residence, what would they be?
Buhne: Come as you are, with a totally open mind. Absorb everything Key West offers, and let it take you somewhere new.

Holowacz: Anything else you want to mention?

Buhne: You and your team, Martha, Elena, and Lauren, were so hospitable and generous with your time. I felt so welcome, comfortable, and immersed in a creative environment! That's rare, so kudos to you all. I would do it all over again and not change a thing. A big huge thank you from the bottom of my heart, which is still singing these new songs!