Canadian-born multimedia artist, Jon Pylypchuk shares his interpretations of otherworldly entities. From bronze ghost bags to found object rugs and a mixed media installation, “I’ve Got Love For You” acts as a tribute to the important figures in his life and his relationship with the other side. Dedicated to his wife and late best friend, it will be the first ever exhibit to feature his music as a soundtrack for the showing. The musical companion entitled "Born Dead, like James Brown"  continues to explore the themes of selfhood, community, and estrangement in parallel with his artwork. The exhibit will be on show at the ArtCenter in Pasadena until August 19.

We turned to Pylypchuk himself to find out more about his relationship and understanding of otherworldly figures.

This is your first exhibition that features your own songwriting. How did you approach creating a multi-sensory experience for the installation?

For a couple years I had this idea about doing a puppet show. I was going to do it in a little spot in my studio it was going to be a secret. I would give out coins to people that would invite them to the secret space the would enter alone or with one other person. They would have an experience and then it would be over. I knew I wanted to write songs for it but hadn’t even started as I had not tried to write a song in probably 25 years. When the opportunity to do the show at ArtCenter came up the idea of this small secret space now had a much larger venue and could be realized in a more sophisticated way. I still wanted to keep the intimacy of the small space so the idea of the campfire and ghost forest seemed like the right thing to do. We performed the songs sitting down and I knew the intimate feeling worked when most of the viewers sat down to watch. We will perform the songs again at the closing of the show in August 19.

The installation invites the audience into a space that feels incredibly intimate to your own life. How do you navigate, if at all, the existence of an unknown audience while creating art that is so personal?

I’m the audience so the greater audience can’t exist. It was easier when I was young to exist in this space as adult life often impedes the route. But if it’s just yourself as the audience you can create without fear of failure because you don’t have to share it. So this is how I start:

Don’t think let it happen.

Be as open and vulnerable as you can.

Look at what you did.

Did it make you laugh, cry, want to puke, want to scream.

Are you almost embarrassed to share it? If so it’s probably good enough to share.

Bronze is an interesting medium through which you make ephemeral objects (spirits, paper bags) feel permanent. Found objects, used as textiles in your rugs, provide another fascinating contrast between fleeting subject and lasting medium. Can you discuss the relationship between subject and medium in this exhibition?

Our perception of reality is made up of myths we convince ourselves of. The story I tried to tell in the show is that nothing is permanent but that’s ok because the myth can be as close to permanent as any individual object. When Tony died, I couldn’t stop making bronze ghosts. Hard reminders this person is gone, monuments. It’s been three years now and that compulsion has softened quite literally into rugs and the reminders that are softer. It’s ok the neural pruning has taken the hard edges away. Combining the two mediums felt right and also bookended the last 3 years of work.

Many people utilize the supernatural as a touchstone of sadness or terror in their art, but your otherworldly figures have been described as “friendly.” Why the positive connotation?

My mother was the second youngest in her family. I was born when she was almost 46 years old. I was an only child and the only kid who spoke Ukrainian at my church, so I worked a lot of funerals as an altar boy. I would stand there for a couple hours at a time holding a candle and staring at some dead person from my church. At some point that initial shock and fear wears off. I hung out with mainly senior citizens as a kid. They talked about mortality in a matter of fact way which also disarms it. People dropped dead all the time. The shit that generation went through with the depression as kids the Second World War as young adults gave them a different perspective on death. You have to find a humor in it otherwise seeing that much of it would have everyone walking around with PTSD.

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Motifs of community between the dead and the living seem to be pervasive throughout the exhibition. What is the role of art in facilitating community between the living and the deceased?‍

This sort of connects to the last question in a nice way. How is it possible that we have if you are lucky about 80 years if consciousness bookended by nothing ness. Both sides. Matter can’t be created or destroyed so we all have existed in a billion different chemical configurations and likely will continue to. Art is the manifestation of things we bring or have given to us from the other side. All consciousness exists always it’s just that some of it isn’t available to us on a regular basis because we have “real lives” that require adult thoughts. When you can try and exist somewhere in between those worlds you get to bring some gifts from there to here.

Do you believe in ghosts?‍

When I was a baby my mother was woken up in the middle of the night by her sister who was standing at the foot of her bed trying to convince my mother to go with her someplace warm. My mom asked how Anne and escaped the hospital and told her she looked pretty good. The phone rang and woke my mom up. It was the hospital calling to let her know Anne had died. That story came up twice. At my mothers funeral my cousin told me about Anne visiting my mother two weeks before she died. This time she wouldn’t take no as an answer. I was in Strasbourg when my mother died. She came to me in the form of snagglepuss from the Hanna Barbera cartoon. She made me laugh and helped me have the best sleep. The next morning when I was getting into the bath the phone rang and I knew my mom was gone. I believe in ghosts.

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