Interview

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Beware: Aaron Young leaves a mark. The artist, in fact, made lots of marks when he unleashed a crew of motorcyclists to pop burnouts on a floor of painted boards last year at New York's Park Avenue Armory. He also sprays surfer tags on his enameled-bronze rocks, creates sculptures that look like broken-down chain-link fences (dipped in gold), and even burns the impression of Jesus Christ onto corneas after a viewer stares at one of his psychedelic silk-screen paintings for 30 seconds. Young is a Californian by birth and also by artistic practice-he's like a hippie who wised up to hard reality and is now part tough guy, part total sweetheart. His work deals in that ongoing scrimmage between countercultural expression and commercial artifact. As the downtown art star prepares for another motorcycle performance in Moscow and a solo show at New York City's Bortolami Gallery in November, he talks with his friend and fellow artist Adam McEwen about trips, trades, and trade-offs in Young's new apartment.

ADAM McEWEN: I like your new loft. It's great. What are those on the table?

AARON YOUNG: Kinoki?

AM: On the table are Kinoki Detox Foot Pads. Where did you get those?

AY: I had to go to Duane Reade the other day to get passport pictures for a visa for Moscow. It's summertime so I felt like detoxicating myself.

AM: Are you photographing your feet?

AY: I haven't taken any documentation of the progress of Kinoki Detox Foot Pads.

AM: It's body-cleanse through the foot. Why are you going to Moscow?

AY: To make a performance similar to the one that I did last September with motorcycle riders. This time we're using all motorcycle riders from Moscow to have more of a social-sculpture aspect. In New York we used all motorcycle riders from here. I'm actually going in a week to do recruiting. I was supposed to go with my main motorcycle rider, Wink 1100 from the Bronx, but he's having problems with his passport. So a little American white boy has to go over there and talk to all of these tough Russian burnout specialists.

AM: Is there a burnout scene in Moscow?

AY: It's huge, actually. When I was there the last time, some guy tried out for me in the garden restaurant while we were having dinner. He just showed up.

AM: What colors will the panels on the ground be?

AY: The performance is taking place at an old chocolate factory right on the Moscow River, and it's across from the Kremlin.

AM: So will you make red panels?

AY: I thought that would be too easy. There's a gold dome on this church right across the river. So I'm going to do four shades of gold with black on the top. I have 24-karat gold sculptures going into the rest of the show. It's a Gagosian group show.

AM: Are they for sale?

AY: No. I think they're just going to be proofs.

AM: You should sell them.

AY: I'll have to look at the exchange rate that day. I don't know the price of gold. Is the price of gold the same everywhere? Is it the same in Russia as it is in the U.S.?

AM: I'm not sure. Where do you buy your gold?

AY: That's what I'm wondering. Then I can set my prices for my sculptures based on that. [laughs]