By: Sergio Bastidas
Friday, June 29th, 2012 I sat down with Shawn “Clown” Crahan, percussionist for Slipknot, to talk about his new creation “The Apocalyptic Nightmare Journey” A collection of photographs spanning twelve years in the making. The book consists of over 185 medium format Polaroid’s. What makes Crahan’s body of work unique is his collection of images that find a way to manipulate the photographs and give them originality.
Fans gathered outside The Book Soup on Sunset Blvd and waited patiently for a chance to have their books autographed. Crahan, alongside fellow band mate Corey Taylor, greeted fans before the book signing prior to the book presentation. Fans gathered for an opportunity to receive insight on the book and the idea behind its creation.
How did you conceive the idea of putting all these photographs together? Where did the name come from?
Well, it took 11 years to make. I decided to make it my own individual master thesis, my four-year, my two-year, I never graduated college. I was always upset I never had my chance. I didn’t give myself a chance to learn, to prove that I could learn. So I thought Id take something I love and make a book. I thought the Apocalyptic Nightmares was my journey, my scratch, you know my color. It’s a journey through my apocalypse you know, my way of deconstruction. The apocalypse to most people is just the end of the world so this is like the end of me, through the color of me and so on and so forth. Its kind of what it is.
Why did you choose Polaroid instead of the traditional 35mm?
Well, at the early ages of Slipknot, professional photographers would bring in medium format cameras, 120 mm, and they put a Polaroid backs on it so that they can test the lighting. I’d always watch when they’d take two ‘cause they were pros. After, they’d discard those Polaroid’s and I would look at them and notice that they weren’t perfect and stuff, so I became infatuated and obsessed with it. I scraped up every dollar I didn’t have and I bought a camera and it all began from there. Now I have over 5000 pictures and when you them on a medium format, you pull it through these rollers and it releases this motion, this chemical. You have three to ten seconds to manipulate it, crunch, stomp, push, do whatever you’d like and then you get something. The answer to my thesis is, if the world is meant to be perfect, it would be perfect. I deconstruct that and by deconstructing it, I make something original that can never be reproduced. Not even by me. That ends up being perfect. It’s just like you and I can look in the mirror and I can say “I don’t look anything like you, you don’t look anything like me” and that’s perfect, that’s a prefect scenario of what life should be. So I just destroy what everybody’s idea is, I’ll take a picture of you and you’re like ” Clown is taking a picture of me, I can’t wait to see what I look like,” and right when its done, I rip it in half and you’re like “why did you do that?” Then I rip it open and I look at it. I put the pieces together and I put one in my pocket and I give you the other half and I say, “I just deconstructed your thought of a perfect thing and made something original. You have half, I have half and we’ll always remember that it’s original and can never be done again the same way and that’s perfect.” So go home and think about that and you will be looking at it and say, “I can’t see the other side ‘cause clown has it.” So I try to go that deep.
What is the message you want Slipknot fans to get out of the book, not just Slipknot fans in general but fans of art and photography?
I don’t really have any expectations. Take what you will, that’s what art is to me. Piss on the book, light it on fire, cut the pages out and tact them to your wall, love it, have it inspire you. Art is art and it has to do what it has to do for you and it’s not a message. My message is personal, its mine and I don’t need to explain it. It’s up to you to get your own message. Just like a song, you hear a great song and you feel like its being sung to you. You feel like its being performed or this photo book has been made for you. It’s my idea but it’s made for you, so get what you will out of it and make it something special, it’s a gift I can give you as an answer of what I want people to take away from it.
The 5th Annual Mayhemfest began over the weekend in San Bernardino, making it your second appearance in the festival. What can fans expect this time around?
Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Its’ ON! What does anybody else want? What does anybody expect of us? Kill.
Slipknot is set to headline this years Mayhemfest. Kicking off in San Bernardino on June 30th and wrapping up in Hartford, CT August 5th.
