Greg Gould is a pop art dreamer living the life of a true art gigolo. He has been juggling two styles of work for sometime now, one being pop-art painting and the other S & M film and foot fetish/lamp assemblage. Ask him which style he likes best and below the belt he will tell you that lamp-making has been treating him well. From above the high art world, into the belly of the S&M/fetish scene, and under the sheets, Mr. Gould has some dirty secrets to reveal.
Nathan Cartwright: Greg, I’ve seen your work evolve quite, shall I say, erotically over the years. Tell me about this progression.
Greg Gould: On the side of painting, I made my first free-standing lamp of a creepy child for a “Doll” themed show. It sold and I started creating more work in this direction. Inspired I placed a couple ‘foot lamps’ in a show, and had a huge response. Suddenly I was awakened to a wild niche market of art buyers with a thirst for what I was making, “foot fetish art”.
Nathan Cartwright: Who is buying this type of work?
Greg Gould: Well, one collector of mine is a cross dresser that gave me his ‘Alter Ego’s’ fetish heels to transform into lamps. One of the better pair I’ve done I think!
Nathan Cartwright: Artists are always in need of “fuel for thought” and it seems you’ve found your fuel in the form of a muse. Tell me about the interesting partnership you’ve found.
Greg Gould: I’ve not really understood the idea of an artist/muse relationship until recently. My muse J.C. has caused my mind to leap into completely uncharted areas that we are exploring together as we go – particularly extending into videos we make. It’s been interesting being able to explore the concept of ‘heightening’ the muse/artist connection a step further by her introducing other girls into the mix as well! All spills out in the work we make and people can sense that. The work has become a collaboration using the primal medium of sexual fire.
Nathan Cartwright: Does art play nicely with kinky sexuality?
Greg Gould: Back in the ’50’s a man by the name of Irving Klaw took what were then very hardcore images. His most famous model was Betty Page. Looking now at the videos and images he made, most seem so innocently sexy, but, there is such a strong undercurrent of raw sexuality that you can’t help but react & love them. It’s that same energy that I’m trying to infuse into my work. My videos have that Low-Fi, rough-cut look of old ’50’s ‘blue movie’-esque film transfer. We’ll be making subtle ‘sexless porn’ which often tends to be the most erotic. In addition, I shoot the girls in lingerie for ‘foot bumper’ videos which are added to time lapsed videos of me actually producing the lamps. It really accentuates the work and adds a whole new medium as a visual extension when I give a collector a DVD of the videos. They love seeing the process of transformation – a shoe worn by a woman as a sexual ‘accessory’ then turned into functional art.
Nathan Cartwright: Greg you’re having a good time. Where do you see this evolving in the future?
Greg Gould: The ‘sexless porn’ detour show will go on! In the end, it will be a very colorful chapter in my personal history as an artist. I exhibit new films and lamps in my studio at The Hive Gallery each month.