Interview:
Hennessy
Hennessy Youngman a.k.a. Henrock the King is een kunst-goeroe. Als je kunstenaar wilt worden, of nog helemaal niets van kunst begrijpt, bekijk dan de video’s van deze zelfverklaarde “black redneck” en je weet alles wat er te weten valt. Want eigenlijk is de kunstwereld helemaal niet zo moeilijk: Hennessy legt je steeds in 3 minuten uit hoe je succesvol moet worden, curators moet overtuigen, of wat post-structuralisme is. Hard//hoofd voelde hem aan de tand.
Hennessy, what are you?
Someone said I was an art critic, someone else told me I was a cultural critic, another person said I was a black redneck. But Hennessy isn’t anybody special, I’m just an American nigga at the cross section of dissonant worlds, and I’m the chaos of those conflicting cultural spheres unresolved in all their wonderful madness. And, y’know, I find that shit MAD entertaining.
For whom did you make the Art-thoughtz videos?
I’m trying to help your everyday woman and man make some sense of the white-walled world of art. You know, I take certain concepts or themes I see, shit that is unnecessarily complex and try to cut to the heart of the matter like that evil shaman motherfucker in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom that ripped that dude’s heart out. SICK SHIT! I had nightmares about that when I was a kid.
What are your major influences for these videos, Macchiavelli, Mussolini?
Macchiavelli? You mean Tupac? Tupac is definitely a big influence on Hennessy. See Tupac may have paraded around like this ‘gangsta’-rapper but that was really just acting, because deep down inside Tupac was a ballerina. He was like a beautiful tulip you come across while strolling through a lush green field on a picturesque spring afternoon. This tulip was so pretty that you picked it out of the earth and put it in a jar filled with water at home and the tulip began to wilt away and become this decaying rotten thing on the windowsill in your bedroom. Yahm saying?
But Tupac wasn’t gonna go out like some ordinary tulip so he became this calcified character in order to protect his tulip heart. And that’s just like me, Hennessy knows a lot of insane and spiritually broken art world people and I need to look out for my inner tulip or I may end up as crazy as them thinking Tino Sehgal is a genius.
Where do you buy your caps?
The internet of course, silly.
Did you become succesful yourself?
Hahaha, you must be high if you’re asking me this question. Are you high? How can I not be successful? I’m Henrock the king. Outside of my Art Thoughtz-videos I am also a very accomplished painter:
But I am not famous in Holland yet. Perhaps you could get Hennessy a solo exhibition in your country at a reputable place of art sale? At a real gallery though, not one of them collective art spaces.
Can you be succesful if you’re a muslim artist?
Are you serious? Have you ever heard of this artist collective known as Al-Qaeda? They did this performance piece called 9-11. That was absolutely jaw dropping. They only performed it once, but luckily it was very well documented and can be seen pretty much anywhere on the internet. Highly recommended. Way better than anything them Fluxus or Dada motherfuckers could come up with.
Heard of any success-stories from people who saw your videos?
Sadly I haven’t yet. But I do run into people on the street or at art openings and they say “Fuck you Hennessy, because of your video every time I look at art now I ask myself: ‘Is this ambiguous enough for me to enter the work?’” So in some way if I can ruin someone’s art experience I’m winning. Wait, I don’t think that answers your question.
Check voor meer video’s van Hennessy zijn Vimeo-account
