The Agenda

A Shepard Fairey Interview From The Archives of Matt Obert

[This article appeared in The Agenda #14, January 2006]

This interview was originally intended for publication in the NicePaper in August 1995. Unfortunately, there were no issues in August: the last issue of that publication came out in July of that year. Perhaps this conversation would have been lost forever, had I not been invited by Helen Stickler and James Brayton Hall to create a little zine for an art opening at RISD's Woods-Gerry Gallery in 1997.

Wunderground at the RISD Museum

by Matt Obert

Providence has a love/hate relationship with underground art spaces, unlicensed show venues, and unauthorized posters wheatpasted in public areas. On the one hand, you have the official story, and on the other hand, you have the true state of affairs. Sometimes, it seems that one hand doesn’t know what the other one is doing. On the one hand, we love to boast that our city is “friendly to artists,” and often cite success stories from the grubby underbelly of the Renaissance City to prop up this point. Wunderground: Providence, 1995 to the present, showing at the RISD Museum now through January 7 of next year, fairly bursts with examples of this kind of success story. Eight established and respected local artists (alphabetically: Mat Brinkman, Brian Chippendale, Jim Drain, Leif Goldberg, Jungil Hong, Xander Marro, Erin Rosenthal and Pippi Zornoza) were courted by RISD Contemporary Art Curator Judith Tennenbaum to co-curate these exhibits. After the shows come down, the museum is slated to close for extensive renovations — which affords the museum a rare opportunity to give these rowdy young artists temporary free rein without worrying too much about the cleanup afterward.

How To Have A Riot: A True Tale of RISD and Brown Students Gone Wild!

by Alex Lukas

“Who expected Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University students, my god, you think they’d teach them a little more than that for the $25,000 in tuition they pay. You think they’d teach them a little more than to go to a pagan ritual and light a fire in a tunnel.”

Buddy Cianci, Mayor of Providence, May 2nd, 1993.

The RISD Tunnel is a setting for innumerable stories, a lot of rumors, and a few legends; any number of which, in all three categories, are pure bullshit. Rumors fly anytime there are shadows, and if there is one thing the Tunnel has a lot of, it’s pitch-black darkness. Talk of vampires, secret passages, giant rats, hidden entrances in East Side backyards and compromises to the structural city above are commonplace amongst those who talk of “the hole under Providence.” Both ends of the tunnel are sealed tight today (if anyone feels qualified to write a “How to Open a Door That’s Been Welded Shut” article, holla), trapping inside what was left of countless adventures, leaving us with only our memories. Everyone who has ever been there has their own, and for a certain generation, the very mention of the tunnel brings up one legendary story: the Riot.