Hipster Terlinguans Erik Walker and Mark Kneeskern ready their multimedia experience for Marfa and the world during Chinati Weekend.

by Marlys Hersey, Editor

If Andy Warhol was born a generation or two later (and found his way to Terlingua), he would probably being doing this kind of thing.

Though Terlingua artists Erik “Shaggy” Walker and Mark Kneeskern did not mention Warhol during the hours we talked (in which we covered a lot of other famous people throughout history, including Henry Ford, Alexander Calder, and Frank Lloyd Wright) their multimedia shows have a certain Warhol-esque flavor to them: the duo takes images from pop culture and plays with them, distorts them, poking fun at everything, making all sorts of statements, from the silly to the ultra serious.

Better than a piece by Warhol, though, these guys make art you can dance to.

How to categorize these shows is a bit of a mystery. “Rave” and “Techno dance” are often used, though neither term does justice to the shows.

“Ours is more a multimedia art installation,” said Walker.

As Walker’s girlfriend Maria Lavender says, “It’s not about one thing. You have to be there to experience it.”

Mark and Shaggy, or “DJ Bowflexx & DJ Vapocrunch” use digital videocamera to film “nearly everything – we’re obsessive about it,” says Kneeskern. “It’s amazing we’re not filming you now, interviewing us.”

Then, from thousands of hours of video, they edit, mix, and project images onto big screens, syncing it all with an array of music that grows in intensity and speed, creating one grand multimedia show to which the public is invited, free of charge.

Their upcoming show includes footage of West Texas oil derricks in motion, clouds over the Chisos Mountains, Kneeskern making funny faces while hopping around, and the rock-moving labors of the trail crew in Big Bend National Park. Just for starters. (I promised them I wouldn’t give away the new musical instruments they’ll be using for the first time.)

Plus, Bowflexx and Vapocrunch wear elaborate costumes, insinuating themselves into the show, something that has evolved into making their entrances a big part of the intrigue and enjoyment for the crowd.

Equally problematic is the term “D.J.” While the shows started out being something we associate with disc jockeys – Walker playing music and using lights for hip dance nights at the Starlight, per Starlight owner Chad Tinney’s request and support – what they do now has long surpassed the term.

“‘D.J.’ is a dirty word,” says Walker.

Adds Kneeskern, “It has things attached to it, things that are not necessarily us.”

“Like ‘love,’” adds Walker. “We’re more ‘V.J.s’ – videographers.”

“But we take it to different levels,” says Kneeskern.

Regardless of what they’re called, when the shows happen (several times a year at the Starlight, over the past three years) a loyal and energetic crowd turns out, many in costumes.

Now Kneeskern & Walker have been invited to do their thing at Ballroom Marfa; their breakout show is the Ballroom’s opening reception for the upcoming “You are Here” exhibition (featuring “artists as cartographers”), allowing these guys to infuse Marfa with their multimedia show and messages – during Chinati Open House weekend, no less.

(I’d like to mention that a highlight of my Chinati experience during Open House weekend last year was being in one of the Flavin light installation exhibits when Mark and Shaggy and their friends came in and made all sorts of noises, playing with the strange acoustics in the room.)

Talking with Kneeskern and Walker is a bit of a multimedia show itself. The two are interested in so many things, get along so well, and have known each other for so long that they finish each other’s sentences, often cracking themselves up.

Their conversation could be described in the same way Kneeskern speaks of their artistic collaboration: “He does some piece, than I do something to it, then he does something – it’s a back and forth, like tennis. It’s like a Velcro ball; we throw it at each other, and something sticks…Art Ball! That’s it!” They laugh very hard.

The native Iowans, now in their early thirties, met over a decade ago, working at a “fine art furniture store” in an old warehouse in Des Moines. While the pay was inadequate and the company’s demands increasingly unrealistic, “it taught me to paint fast, taught me a lot about colors,” says Kneeskern. “I met lots of my best friends there. There were a lot of creative people.”

Walker, with a B.A. in fine art, painting and sculpture from Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa, landed here in 1995, for a seasonal job on the trail crew of Big Bend National Park, which he’s done every year since. He’s also created designs for t-shirts and logos, including one for the annual Ride for Trails motorcycle rally. And he’s learning about solar power technology, and hopes to become a certified technician in the field.

Kneeskern, with a B.F.A. in drawing, painting, and printmaking from Iowa State University, came here three years ago, and has also worked on the trail crew, though this winter, he hopes to make a living off his art. Recent projects include his illustrations published in Blair Pittman’s just-out Tales from the Terlingua Porch, and the latest Desert Candle; he is now working on a sign for a local café.

All of their shows have themes. “We have hundreds of ideas,” says Kneeskern. “We let it narrow down to a few.” Past shows include “The Toy Show” – in which Kneeskern was wearing a behemoth of a costume he described as a “Hoover-craft.” During that show, “I was on the dance floor with a vacuum…. We ended up not-so-accidentally sucking up an American flag,” he reminisces.

There was “The Color Show,” which “went from mellow to terror,” mocking  Terrorist Alert levels pronounced by Department of Homeland Security.

Last spring brought “The Fashion Show,” for which both artists shaved their hair off – most of it, anyway. Walker left a patch on top, dyed green, to look like a lawn. Kneeskern, who had had very long hair, shaved all but a long tail in back and front. They had audience members on their catwalk, showing off their fashions to the music of Prince and the like.

There was “The Robot Show” in which Kneeskern wore an outfit made of steel, which was so heavy he could barely move.

Some of the earlier shows, before they became adept with videocameras and projectors, reminds Lavender, were still labor-intensive, just in a different way. “Before that, you guys were creating these massive sets; it would take you 4 to 6 hours to take down the next day.”

“You had Yucca Head!” recalls Walker.

“It was tribal!” says Kneeskern.

Both artists seem to be flourishing in Terlingua. “It’s great to be in the desert,” says Walker, “to be removed from the chaotic world…of urban settings,” which he still loves to visit. “There’s always something [to watch and film] in the desert: crazy insects, wild clouds….”

“And water – here and there,” jokes Kneeskern.

Living in Terlingua also poses certain challenges, especially for those working with sophisticated technology – or any electronic technology, for that matter. “There’s always going to be a cord you still need,” says Walker, “or information, or lumber… or costumes… You either drive a long way, or get stuff through the Internet.”

Inspired and helped by Zybnek, their good friend from the Czech Republic who “gave us a nudge” towards the right hardware and software, they have taught themselves most of what they know of this fairly advanced equipment they use (digital videocameras, Macintosh laptop computers with Final Cut Pro software, and 8 & 16 mm projectors). Yet Kneeskern and Walker rely on solar energy at their homes, and Kneeskern does not have a car. On hot days, computers overheat, forcing them to work at night instead.

Still, the duo finds Terlingua has “a good sense of community. People are supportive of each other,” says Walker.

“They have pretty good senses of humor, too,” adds Kneeskern.

“And People [in Terlingua] have always liked to dance.”

“And have campfires with people telling stories.”

They are very excited about their upcoming debut at the Ballroom, the theme of which is “Fixing Your TV.” Inspired by images in old Popular Mechanics magazines (“Be a TV Repairman!” exclaims Walker, quoting the 1950’s-era text), the VJ’s began thinking about “how much brain space” TV takes up. This show will be more “video-centric” than their previous ones.

“Imagine for one night,” says Kneeskern, “that I have control of what people watch! There’s gonna be news, weather, advertising, political speeches – all kinds of our own programming.”

In the future, the artists plan to continue developing their shows, allowing ideas and mediums to evolve. While they’re looking for more studio space and more venues at which to show, they hope to make what they call “sustainable art projects” – like wind and solar-powered installations. “We could film that and project it into a gallery,” explains Walker.

It would make sense, since, as Kneeskern notes, “That’s how we live our lives, not consuming exorbitant amounts of energy….”

“It’s not so much about money as it is about the audience.” Walker emphasizes. “It’s cool to have more people see what we’re doing…. We’re reinventing what an art show is, inviting the audience to come down and have a good time.”

This way, adds Kneeskern, “it’s less stale, less stagnant.”

Besides the dancing, the spontaneity, the fun, the pair hopes their art makes people look at things differently, and not just politically. Whether their images portray someone working, or clouds in the sky, “it gives you a chance to watch at an elapsed speed; you notice things you wouldn’t notice,” says Walker.

Adds Kneeskern, “It allows you to watch how clouds billow, how wind moves… It’s educational.”

Instead of a few paintings displayed on walls, Walker notes, this medium allows them to show 1000’s of images in one night.

Says Kneeskern, “It’s like a museum of your life.”

“Fixing Your TV” will happen on Friday, October 7, at 10 pm in the courtyard of Ballroom Marfa at 108 East San Antonio Street in Marfa. For more information check out our Events Calendar on this site.

Terlinguans wanting to carpool to the Marfa show, please call 371.2424 and leave a message. There will be camping nearby.

To contact the artists directly, send email to Erik Walker: walkerik@yahoo.com, and Mark Kneeskern: raindogfalls@yahoo.com.