Blami had the idea of writing explanations to his art pieces because he always uses different techniques and wanted the visitors to know how the artwork was created. He wrote them in Spanish, Mike had to translate them into English and then Veronika (beloved colleague at the gallery) reinterpreted them in German.

Blami then transferred everything in some strange crooked way of writing onto the wall. The result was some naive-sounding, misspelled and therefore intriguing comments. In fact, they are now pure poetry. At the opening this was the wall where people stayed the longest, reading and causing traffic jams at the stairs.

Mike Swaney

Mike Swaney hung his archaic pictures on the right wall, filling a white space between the frames with a charming collage. On saturday before the opening, there was an interview by the new German illustrator’s magazine “Jitter“. The interviewer first talked to Mike upstairs while I sat downstairs reading and not listening. The only word I could distinguish (since it was mentioned quite often in this interview) was “Schlumper”. Being a fan of “art brut”, Mike was excited to find right opposite to Heliumcowboy Artspace the “Galerie der Schlumper” – a gallery and studio where mentally handicapped people paint, cut or knit their totally genuine, individual pieces of art.

Blami’s interview was about the importance of lines, about frames that often belong to the composition, and found objects he transforms into pieces of art by manipulating them.

The opening itself was a success and a huge party as usual with Blami putting on some music, Inigo cutting ham, Jörg selling art and everybody else drinking too much. We went out dancing in the morning. I’m looking forward to next time.

Iguapop! Exhibition
Date: August 25th – September 21st, 2007
Place: Heliumcowboy Artspace
Address: 4 Sternstr., 20357 Hamburg
http://www.heliumcowboy.com