A still from artist Michael Alan’s last Living Installation, called “Puppets”. (Photos: Michael Alan)
Its awning says Second Time Around is a thrift shop, but it doesn’t have all that much clothing on its shelves, and this weekend there won’t be any on its staff, either. On Saturday night, workers at the Bushwick store will actually be figure models, performing naked as part of artist Michael Alan’s Nude Thrift Shop. They’ll be painted by the artist until the place becomes a “naked, oozing painted weirdo shop” — and to top it all off, the backyard will host “a kiddie-pool naked dance party.”
The idea for this “strange living movie” all started when Alan met Second Time Around owner and artist Bizzid through a friend, artist and cosmic cavern proprietor Kenny Scharf. Alan started going there a lot to draw and hang out.
Alan behind the counter at Second Time Around.
“The things he sells are pretty weird,” Alan told us, referring to Bizzid’s stock of comic books, action figures, and other collectibles. “It just struck us. He has this large backyard. It’s almost like a gallery, with all these walls you could do graffiti on and paint on, and it’s smoke-friendly and party-friendly.”
On Saturday, the backyard will host “a swimming pool with models,” a live mural painting by Moody (Mutz) and members of his AA (Associated Artist) crew, and live tattoos by Val Yoma of Sins & Needles in Greenwich Village.
Alan being tattooed by Yoma while drawing live.
There will also be live music by Tim Love Lee, Shaz Ill York, “who is like a super crazy kinda ghetto rapper in a sense,” and by Alan, who has collaborated with the likes of Tommy Ramone, Meredith Monk, Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys, The Boredoms, Japanther and members of Wu-Tang Clan.
“I hope this is making sense,” Alan said as he gave us the rundown.
Alan, 37, started drawing as a kid, growing up a few streets over from the Park Hill Apartments in Staten Island. “I was friends with ODB, I’m friends with [his brother] Ramsey Jones… he’s in my band,” Alan told us. “They always inspired me to draw.” He has gone on to do “a lot of high-end stuff,” including works currently featured in an exhibition at the Tanja Grunert Gallery in Chelsea.
Alan and Jones.
Of course, the Nude Thrift Shop will be “quite different” from that show. Alan says that while he follows the traditions of figure drawing, he has some trouble with it. Looking at models standing still in halogen light, he sometimes feels like they just want to “jump off the stage and do something,” and that he wants to “dress them and let them perform.”
Alan drawing outside of the Tanja Grunert Gallery.
He also tires of “events that make you feel you have to wear high heels and a suit and be on top of your game as an artist.” Sometimes “you gotta have a night where you can just make a fool of yourself or not,” he said. And that’s why he started doing Living Installations, like the Nude Thrift Shop, 13 years ago.
“I always liked happenings– strange, really experimental happenings. Not these happenings where you go and one person is singing with a folk guitar and crying. Like, real wild. Like: ‘Oh my god, this is New York. This is not plagiarized from someone from Colorado,’” he said.
He told us all of this one day after undergoing radiofrequency ablation. He was hit by a car four years ago and the fallout from the collision has caused him to undergo about 20 surgeries since. He said the collision “affected everything,” but it’s clear that it has not affected his spirit of creativity.
Alan drawing in hospital.
“I like to light people’s’ fires, in a good way, and get them to activate,” he said. “If you don’t do stuff for others, your life sucks.”
Alan will not be showing any of his work at the Nude Thrift Shop, but he will have 30 silkscreened sweaters printed in collaboration with Brooklyn Print House for sale ($80), and there will be “fine art stickers” available a la Stick Em Up Inc.
Tickets are available on Alan’s website for $25, or for $30 at the door.
Alan’s silkscreened hoodie and a “fine art sticker”.
Correction: The original version of this post was revised to clarify that the phrase “painted weirdo” was used in reference to the shop and not the models.