Etan Wish: I have a very special and awesome interview for you today. I am sitting here with Morgan Freeman, also known as Bluecrash. Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself and let everyone know what you do.
Morgan Freeman: My name is Morgan Freeman, and I'm a visual artist here in New York. I do a lot of design, different looks for different events. From underground warehouse events to designing the look of corporate shows. I work with DJs and even Bar Mitzvahs... it's been a pretty interesting year!
EW: Looking through your work, one would find that you also capture the world through your camera lens.
MF: I am also a journalist. I had my NYPD independent press accreditation for many years. My work has been published in many magazines including Globe, AERA Magazine, the front page of an architecture magazine for an article I did with the wonderful Keiko Tsuyama, known for her international news coverage and published books about technology. There was a lot of breaking news and interview journalism. I covered the Occupy Wall Street story, was in Spain covering a lot, as well as in Haiti after the earthquake to cover the rebuilding. The last story I covered was the inauguration this last January in Washington. But, more recently the focus has been on keeping my residency at Marquee, New York.
EW: Right on. So you're pretty well known for your work with projecting mapping and digital art, can you tell us a little more about that?
MF: I've been doing projection mapping for a little over four years. I know I'm probably not the first person to do it, but I'm one of the first people to do the more complicated and some of the first stuff here in New York as far as projection mapped stages for underground parties, pieces for museums, or corporate events and nightlife.
EW: How are you able to combine your professional passions into your art?
MF: I originally have an IT background, working with hardware and software for over a decade. I knew that wasn't really me, I always thought of myself as an artist, but I knew I couldn't make a living as an artist, so I worked in IT for a long time. After the dot com bubble burst, I realized I couldn't make that living as an IT person! So I went back to the idea of being an artist. So I combined my background with computers and software to do a lot of the digital art and move forward with some ground breaking ideas as far as technology and art. So as far as passions coming together, well in the end they all kind of did, and led me here to Manhattan for the past four years.
EW: While at Marquee, what's one of the craziest things you've seen go down?
MF: I don't want to blow up any celebrities spots. We have a lot of celebrities, a lot of actors, a lot of old heroes of mine. One of the craziest moments was ... *laughs* ... well one of the more interesting moments from Marquee and it's celebrities was probably Afrojack's birthday where he walked around and was serving everybody a shot of Patron. So getting served a a shot of tequila by Afrojack on his birthday, that's the usual kind of thing to go down at Marquee that I think I can talk about.
EW: Where do you draw inspiration from?
MF: I draw from everything I see, I think like most artists. When I go for walks in the city and see window displays. A lot of looking at other artists work online from other countries all over the world. I think everyone is looking at everyone's work and reinterpreting what we see. I believe it's that interpretation that gives us our own styles. I would work a lot through mash up work at a lot of the warehouse stuff. People used to think there were messages in my work, but it was all very da-da. If you have to make something that is not a loop, I would do a six or eight hour pieces that would constantly change over the night, there was no message.
EW: I'm aware of work you've done with Erykah Badu. Where are some places we've seen your work?
MF: Years ago I did an interactive projection mapped floor for a BET performance for Erykah Badu. After I did that, the whole floor at the Super Bowl later that year had the mapping. I was happy to see that stuff as catching on and people were making use of the technology. I've also done work with big companies like Nike and Patron. I have been lucky to work with a lot of my favorite top 100 DJs, and working at EZOO 2012 for Knife Party on the main stage.
I've been at Marquee now for the past year, one of the hottest clubs in New York City. Pretty much every big artist in their event calendar I've worked for in some capacity. I work with the LEDs and pretty much all of the video on the walls and on the ceiling... Which only run second to the lighting. I work with one of the best lighting designers, John Triunfo. The room has a very specific dark, underground, minimal look. It's very hip and very now, it's very minimal techno for New York nightlife.
EW: What about you, what do you like to do?
MF: I really love movies. I love... I love food. I'm so, so happy with this residency that I'm able to go out into New York and enjoy a lot of food. I wasn't able to go out and enjoy the last few years I've been here in New York. I know it sounds silly, but I'm very happy to go out and eat in Manhattan.
EW: When you do find time to do exhibits and private shows, how do you mold your designs?
MF: I've been doing a lot of themes, for about the last year and a half. All original work... I did Exploring the Shadow of a Giant Robot. It was a giant installation where we installed a giant robot and I filmed all these apartments interiors and projected them into these buildings that were under the robots shadow. I also did a group exhibit piece that was at MoMa. It was a piece I filmed exploring the architecture and the body's resting posture.
EW: There's an installation you have coming up on June 5th, and from what we've heard so far it sounds very interesting.
MF: Yes, I am having an exhibit June 5th at the Rabbithole Gallery (Dumbo, BK), titled "I Am Normal". It's an exhibit that features the human body, both male and female. It is an interactive installation as well, where people there will be able to manipulate the bodies of 9 models, men and women. A great way to describe the gallery comes from a review by Max Ritvo; poet and experimental comedian in the NYC-based troupe His Majesty the Baby.
He wrote that it will be a "groundbreaking, merciless interrogation of viewer and viewed, exploration of manhood, womanhood and sexuality; projection artist Morgan Freeman uses his imagination, technical bravura, and keen understanding of the human form to allow audience members to manipulate, in real-time, moving video of models."
EW: That's great. That's a really interesting and capturing environment for people to be in. I am definitely looking forward to that. Well, thank you so much for your time today Morgan, and before we go, let everyone know where they can find you online.
MF: My pleasure, and people can find me online at Bluecrash.com and I also have video channels to watch as well.
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