"Grey Mule" - Jesse Smith

I don't know if my retrospective longing for the Instagram of the past is revisionary or not. Was it ever a good platform and it just became worse, unsuitable for my needs, and actively hid the artists I had volunteered to see? I think so. Was it ever good for my mental health, even at it's peak? Probably not, but I do have to say: my early experiences of participating in underground cultures, zine trading, and making photography and art are inseparable from participating with the platform. Blegh!

This is something I can rant about for too long, and it's here as a preamble only because this was a product I discovered via Instagram - specifically Shea Hardacre's "No Coast / No Hope" cassette + zine imprint. I was a big fan of Shea's tiki inspired noise project, and of course a lot of the midwest noise + industrial artists on his label, and got this miniature square publication with the inaugural run of print items he put out.

A short + sweet publication, I love it because it's small and square and really quite elegant for a publication of graphically horror / dbeat / crusty styled art. Like stills from Begotten run through a Xerox a few times, or grave rubbings from a Lovecraft cemetery. This was one of the first "white on black" books I'd ever seen, it's a presentation I really love - I tried to ape it with a zine of contact sheets a few years on and it looked terrible, but it works so well for this style. I was crazy for this type of imagery at the time, the first CD and tape I did for my own little noise project was v. much captured by this aesthetic. Every page here could be an LP or CD cover. I remember writing to Jesse to express admiration for this zine and we later traded one of my photobooks for one of his screenprinted posters of a grotesque, twin headed abomination - a cool little item I'll hang up for next halloween.

The algorithm def buried his work after the "pivot to video" and I can't find his old account, I vaguely recall thinking Jesse was a tattoo artist in Pittsburgh? But I can't say for a fact! I'm grateful to own this slice of his work, it has a mystery past the noise boy aesthetic.

Peruse the whole of it here ! -> https://www.are.na/block/45650627