Oli Goldsmith is the first to admit that he has a few screws loose. He was a few clowns short of the circus long before he decided to create 999 portraits of Borat, a laborious oeuvre that has many shaking their heads. Goldsmith is probably the brightest crayon in the box! Goldsmith’s maniacal commitment to production and his early successes are the envy of every living artist. What other pop culture junkie could boast prestigious positions like “Creative Director” before they could legally bar hop? Few artists even get gigs, and Goldsmith’s been sought after by galleries, brand builders, and major entertainment studios like Sony and Miramax since he was 16. Goldsmith also received six Muchmusic Video Award nominations, and two Juno nominations in regards to his artwork for popular band “Our Lady Peace”, a Protégé Honors Award, and a YTV Achievement Award. He then received the much-coveted Artist in Residency at Toronto’s Drake Hotel. The darling of new media, Goldsmith’s creativity reigns through Canadian canvas, collage, video, music, the printed page and more.
Just when there seems to be no more room for anyone else, and no possible way to squeeze more projects into a gallery and cyber spaces, Goldsmith really went insane. He woke up one day and thought, ‘Hey, I’m going to create one thousand portraits of Borat’. Welcome to art history.
It takes me quite a while to find Oli Goldsmith’s studio in the side streets of Toronto’s west end. I’m close to giving up after a cab driver says, “I’ve never heard of this street”. On the other hand, I think it would be a real let down to lose the chance to meet Goldsmith in person, and see the Borat insanity for myself. While I’ve admired Goldsmith’s artwork at a few outdoor festivals, I have to admit that I’ve really sat up to take note when rumors circulated about 999 Borats. I’d become a fan of ‘Da Ali G Show’. I had to watch several episodes before realizing that “Ali”, “Bruno”, and “Borat” were all the same guy! Now, here was an artist committing to a ridiculous production, and all dedicated to the blundering “Borat”.
Even if an artist could create one portrait of “Borat” per diem, wouldn’t this project still take three years? Wasn’t this move rather audacious, given the fact that most artists don’t create a thousand pieces in their lifetime? The whole schlep indicated to me that Oli had something many artists lack: Bravado, gimmickry, and an attention-getting scheme that puts them on the map. While we certainly can’t all expect to be born gifted with innovative marketing ploys in addition to our unique callings, thinking outside the box is definitely going to separate the brawn from the yawn. There are plenty of amazing artists out there that we will never hear of. Oli is making sure he’s not one of those.
Eventually I made it to the studio, where Oli’s wife, artist Caroline Bacher, greeted me warmly, and poured liberally from a bottle of wine. I see a few cats skulking in between dozens of canvases, and feel quite at home. Mr. and Mrs. Goldsmith show me around. Both create eccentric, stunning, highly original stuff. It looks like with or without “Borat”, Oli’s got one thousand things on the go (at least). So what would drive a man to commit himself to 999 Borats on the wall?
“Well, to be honest, the prolific and optimistic side of me never thought coming up with one thousand works would be ‘so much energy.’” he says. Wow. I mean, even if we’re talking about one-minute pastel sketches, we’re still talking about 999 minutes. The portraits of “Borat” are a diverse medley, fashioned from a range of media-paint, collage, and digital. Anything at hand that stokes Oli’s imagination! It’s great that one man out of six point something billion of us considers a thousand portraits only a trifle tiring. That’s all fine and good, but why “Borat”? He may be a flash in the pan, wildly popular today and gone tomorrow. He’s not Madonna, he’s funny, but so is Steve Martin. He’s not particularly, outrageously good looking, and I’m not sure that I could find one thousand ways to describe him, quite frankly. Was it just random? Well, it was, sort of.
“I can’t say that ‘Borat’ was simply a choice made arbitrarily, as he fit the need for a subject in ways many other celebrities wouldn’t have. ‘Borat’ certainly encapsulated the role of celebrity and its fleeting nature. I have long been intrigued by the mass media and the role it plays in both our communal experience as a society, and our individual experiences within it. The phenomena of celebrity is clearly a significant aspect within this theme.”
“I definitely would state that [Sasha Baron] Cohen has done a really exceptional job at crafting a character that works on so many levels. He is crass, bold, funny, offensive, idiotic and revealing – yet somehow still very charming. Through this character - not simply any movie star celebrity, but a carefully crafted ‘caricature,’ does provide a conduit through which situations occur that indeed reveal a lot about stereotypes, American and Western culture. I also get the sense that he isn’t completely sure of his own message. He knows what he is doing is raising something interesting, valid and in fact important social and political questions – but he doesn’t succumb to worrying too much about just what those might be. He just lets it happen.
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The sheer output velocity of such a project demands a great deal from an artist, and I suspect that under these articulate and passionate explanations, Oli was just bored. I get the feeling he wanted to do something nearly impossible, and committing himself to it via the Internet community meant that there was no backing down. A project like this must go beyond the heady exhilaration of the early days, when creation is all whirl wind and ideas (and torture, reluctance, fury, exhaustion). Most relationships, human or creative, break off during this era. However what might follow is something few will make it through to, when you really start to surprise yourself. “Borat” is just the vehicle for the commitment. Oli is a man who is no stranger to massive production. He has explored through his art every conceivable medium. I suspect that Oli just wondered what new ways of communication and media he would stumble across, what new ways he’d find to convey, and what new expressions could be forced out of him after exhausting all of the possibilities. What if we all promised ourselves to create one thousand portraits/inventions/blogs/shoe designs/recipes? Perhaps only then could we begin to surprise ourselves.
“My work has always been very much interested in, and inspired by the unique moment in which we find ourselves where technology-based tools allow for almost limitless possibilities, or where the original mode of physical application of paint, ink, pastel and other traditional forms are held in high regard,” Oli explains. “I can’t deny a love of both! I find my own balance in mixing these two realms, and am always looking for new ways to do so.”
He admits that the project has allowed him great freedom within its confines to try anything and everything. “I’m sure that even more new approaches will be explored as it nears completion. I have prodded into the realms of 3D manipulated graphics, processing and other types of photo and image manipulation that I haven’t explored before. Besides exploring new media and techniques, the project is about culture”.
How’s that for thinking outside the box? Here’s a Canadian artist who found a way to mark the world map.
The Best part of all, perhaps, is how infectious and accessible the whole project is. Oli has passed the halfway mark. That’s correct, he’s made over 500 portraits of “Borat” already, and he shares his progress with us online at www.999borats.com. For each piece, he’s charging a modest $100. He’s got t-shirts as well, which would make lovely holiday gifts for all the odd acquaintances you know.
To say that I leave the Oli Goldsmith studio inspired is an understatement. I’m ready to turn off my computer for a few days, and unearth some half-finished canvases, rediscover the joy of pure and insane creation. Maybe I’ll even make a “Borat” of my own, in honor of Oli and his work.
As I’m heading home on the subway, it must be the massive amounts of wine I imbibed, but it seems that everyone on the train looks a great deal like Borat. Peculiar. That’s when it hits me upside the head. “Random celebrity selection”, my ass! It’s “Da Oli G. Show”!
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