Jeanne Claire van Ryzin of the Austin American-Statesman interviewed me about the Austin stop of my Texas inflatable suit tour. As the article title states, the inflatable suit man is returning to Austin. Tomorrow I take You Wear What I Wear to the corner of Cesar Chavez Street and Congress Avenue and the charge into the city. The last time I trucked an inflatable suit to Austin was during the 2009 Fusebox Festival about a year ago. That time I faced my nemesis, strong winds. This time I am prepared with a nearly wind-proof inflatable suit.

Read the article on Austin360.com or click on the picture for a larger image.

FOX 29 sent a reporter and cameraman out to the Main Plaza to cover the San Antonio performance. Anchors Michael Valdez and Mileka Lincoln introduce the work by asking the audience how many times something bright and colorful runs into them. At the end the weather man makes a joke about someone giving the excuse of, “I saw a monster, I swear.” for why they wrecked their car.

Transcript:

Mileka Lincoln: Well finally from us tonight — you can run into a lot of colorful sights in downtown San Antonio.

Michael Valdez: But — Have you ever had one run into you? Meet performance artist, Jimmy Kuehnle, who unleashed his inflatable, You Wear What I Wear, suit on downtown this afternoon. The UTSA grad uses the suit to challenge himself and his unsuspecting audience to break out of their everyday routine. Kuehnle is on a tour of Texas right now, where he says he normally draws a lot of smiles and a lot of pictures.

Jimmy Kuehnle: We can categorize this. This is a fountain. We can categorize those cars. Those are cars we don’t pay a second thought to. But when we see something that — our brains can’t categorize then possibly we might have new thoughts or become vulnerable to new ways of thinking — and this is just one attempt to try to break through that repetitive consciousness each of us have

Valdez: Ah — How about that? Kuehnle says he has been breaking out his inflatable art for the past four years all over the nation. If you watch that whole video, really people are like complete unfazed by it.

Lincoln: Really? – I would have turned and run

Valdez: He like runs — He like runs into people and there just like, “Hm — alright.” — Here’s our Anthony Pittman with Maximum Sports — Antonio.

Lincoln: He would have run.

Anthony Pittman: Honey how did you wreck the car? Well, I thought I saw a monster. I’m serious. Oh, yeah –`

I am kicking off a Texas inflatable performance tour with a performance of You Wear What I Wear in San Antonio, Texas on February 26, 2010 at 12:00 p.m. The performance in San Antonio will begin in the main plaza downtown and will take an organic trip through the surrounding city. Other cities on the tour include Austin, Houston and Dallas.

I appeared on the KENS 5 Great Day San Antonio morning show to announce the start of the performance tour in San Antonio. Eileen Teves and I tried out two inflatable suits in the KENS 5 parking lot to open the show. The event on the 26th is free and open to the public. I hope to see you there.

Transcript:

Bridget Smith: People have been asking about Eileen. Eileen has been working on a lot of special projects.

Bill Taylor: Eileen Teves. — ya?

Smith: Yes, but Eileen is still here — she’s still here. And guess what? Today she is out in our parking lot. I don’t t know what she is doing or who she is with — but she is street beating honey.

Taylor: Uh oh — wiki, wiki wiki — wiki, wiki. — Does she do hip hop?

Eileen Teves: Wiki, wiki, wiki, wiki –

Smith: You know what? She does and she’s very good.

Smith: I want to say good morning to Eileen — EIleen.

Teves: Good morning — good morning. It’s good to see you guys

Smith: Good to see you too.

Taylor: Hi Eileen.

Smith: What’s going on?

Teves: I can’t believe Bill — well I can’t believe first of all Bill said, “Eileen? Eileen Tevis?” Of course.

Taylor: As opposed to that other Eileen.

Teves: All right — ok — so we’re live out here in the parking lot. I’ve got Jimmy Kuehnle here. He’s an artist — and can you believe this is his display right here — some beautiful, colorful inflatables. So talk about this Jimmy, you travel around town and you go inside here. So could you kinda go inside this inflatable right here?

Jimmy Kuehnle: Yeah, sure, no problem.

Teves: Ok — so, it only takes a couple seconds to get in — is that right? Look at that and already this is a work of art — and walking art. Whoa — So you guys can actually check out something like this downtown on Friday the 26th. Look at that, you got in you got out easily.

Kuehnle: Yes — yes.

Teves: So, tell us a little about it.

Kuehnle: Ok, so these are inflatable suits and I make them out of nylon and the point of them is to walk the line between the spectacle and the absurd.

Teves: Oh –

Kuehnle: So that way people’s minds become vulnerable to new thoughts and new ideas because they can’t categorize this like a tree or a car that they see normally.

Teves: Got it.

Kuehnle: They go, “What’s that?” and then suddenly it might change what they are going to do tomorrow or maybe next week. And, so it’s a lot of fun to do that.

Teves: There you have it and it looked like a lot of fun with you, and I want to see if I can try to get in.

Kuehnle: Sure, no problem.

Teves: Now, this is going to be my suit here.

Kuehnle: Yes — yes. So, let’s just knock it over

Teves: I don’t know if you guys are going to be able to see me so I just have to kinda have to — lean into it. — We only got a few more seconds here, Jimmy — so let’s go in there.

Kuehnle: Alright, go ahead.

Teves: Alright, let’s get in. Oh, my goodness.

Kuehnle: So, there you go, you’re in a suit.

Teves: Whoa — This is — this is intense. Can you guys see me? Wow.

Kuehnle: There you go

Teves: Alright, now all you do is walk around with this on you?

Kuehnle: I walk around, bang into buildings, say hello to the folks — have a good time.

Teves: This is interesting. If you would like to check out Jimmy Kuehnle’s display, he’s going to be out and about at Main Plaza — on Friday starting at noon.

Kuehnle: Friday the 26th

Teves: Ok, Friday the 26th at noon. So check him out. He’s going to be walking around so make sure you get there at noon and you follow him throughout downtown. He’s going to be taking a tour.

Kuehnle: Yes, taking a tour. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

Teves: Ok, well, there you have it. That’s my Street Beat. Back to you guys

Taylor: Eileen — Oh no — It was actually going over, did you see it?

Smith: I wonder how long after the live shot they are just going to hang out in there.

Taylor: Uh oh –

Smith: Just hang out in the balloon.

Taylor: Whoa — There she’s out — she’s out — she’s ok.

Smith: She’s like, “I’m done — and we’re clear.”

Taylor: Did you see the dismount? That was a ten. That was nice. She stuck the landing.

Smith: Thank you so much Eileen.

Link to video on KENS 5 website:
http://www.kens5.com/great-day-sa/Inflatable-Art-84602962.html

Steven Rosen of the CityBeat in Cincinnati interviewed me about the upcoming performance there on Friday. I spoke with him on the phone the day after my performance in Chicago. Click on the image to see the full article or follow this link:

http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-19514-adjusted-for-inflation.html

I spoke with Jason Carr of the FOX 2 Detroit Morning show at the FOX 2 studios. The interview went fine except for the fact that large inflatable suits do not fit well inside television studios. The suits banged into the lighting rigs a bit, but no damage was done.

Getting the suits out and inflated before the performance got me pumped for what I knew was going to be a cold performance on the streets of Detroit. I stopped by a diner before that performance to grab a burger and to top off the air blower batteries. As I entered the building a woman exiting asked me if I was on the news that morning. I replied, “Yes, and I will be bouncing down the street in a few minutes.” That is the kind of accessibility and audience scope that I seek with my performances.

Emily Weerts of the Austinist online magazine interviewed me about the upcoming Art Outside event that begins Friday at Apache Pass.

Link to the full interview:

http://austinist.com/2009/10/08/interview_jimmy_kuehnles_inflatable.php

Glasstire.com, an online journal of Texas visual art, put out an open call for art videos a couple of months ago. Glasstire plans to have a series of videos produced documenting art openings, exhibits, artists and the general Texas art scene.

A little over a month ago, Angela Guerra of Prime Eights Design, contacted me about the possibility of them working on a video about my work for Glasstire. Prime Eights Design is the tag team duo of Angela Guerra and Mark Walley. I had met them in San Antonio during graduate school during one of Mimi’s openings.

Today Angela and Mark are headed to Roswell, New Mexico to start a new video project featuring my performance work here and at the upcoming Fusebox Festival in Austin, Texas.

Links:
Prime Eights Design
Fusebox Festival 2009