Foreword
Cher is one of those people that doesn’t “fit in”. It’s hard to get her to open up, because she is the one observing everything quietly. Her paintings stir things up. I decided to ask her directly about her work, particularly about her still life series of produce in plastic bags. She was feeling talkative, and I grabbed my phone recording her talk.
This is an unedited transcribed recording
David Zarovny, Interviewer: Ok so, tell me again how this started? We had company over late one night and you saw...
Cher Kalberer, Artist: I saw rows and rows of stacked potatoes...in a milk crate that we have a stack of with all our vegetables. It was interesting because the subject was already framed by the black cube. It gave it this frame in itself and all of my attention went in... the potatoes were crammed so high in there, and the potatoes were in a plastic bag.
I put it on a grey background so it kinda felt nostalgic.. and I squared off the drawing. So that's where that came from...
Then I painted a bag of... fruits? or potatoes or something, no it was a bag of citrus.
Yeah, I later re-painted a bag of citrus.
DZ: Yeah that was one of those bulk discount bags from Berkeley Bowl.
CK: Yeah, we put [our food] in a plastic bag just to gather them—and transport them. I thought about all the times—every time you get produce… especially when it’s not the natural food store where the bags are compostable... It's like, "Here’s this single-use bag" every time…
DZ: Why'd you choose to draw fruits?
CK: Fruits are life force, their structure is a torus shape... they’re similar to the whole earth... everything is coming in from the center and flowering, that’s how everything grows. It’s like this cell division splayed out with mitosis, and everything fruits.
Fruit is a representative of life itself. Even in mythology, you got the apple… the trees are very connected to being alive…One time I was looking at a little tomato. It was a cherry tomato, in a perfect little sphere. On the end it had this cosmic array of little orange dots... they almost looked like they were sparkling.
DZ: The little sun freckles? I still see them to this day since that trip!
CK: Yeah so if you look very closely at your fruit or vegetables, you see those details, and it fractals out. There’s a lot we don’t see in plain sight. Like when you squeeze a citrus, and there’s this little spray that you get from the oil in the surface or the spray of opening a little tomato. And that floats around and reaches your nose, you can see all of this in the sunlight if you’re watching closely.
DZ: Like a little geyser. Nature's "little event".
CK: So it’s exploding all this energy, it’s just like the cosmos. Just like, how things grow and how things die. It’s just like the earth cycle. It's all overlapping. So we took this ubiquitous plastic...
DZ: Pfft. Alright, "Neil" hahaha. You're just trying to sound smart... You're not impressing me with your cosmos! Heh, "You wouldn't want to put it in a tube" (Reference to The Universe by Tim & Eric)
CK: Well I mean, that's exactly what we're doing. We're putting all the little cosmoses — all the little planets — in a plastic bag.
DZ: It's true... I mean... yeah that's true.
CK: ...and wrapping it up, tight.
DZ: I like what you said about "the square composition of it, and you like it life-size..."
CK: Oh, it has to be "life-size", because "life-size" makes it "human-size". If you were to look at it really big or really small, you're looking at it as if through a camera lens, not through a human eye. So you need to see it like "This is from our psychic perspective" because, the way you are, frames how you see and experience everything. It's like you're transported to that particular body... to experience that particular time... for the particular reason... It's like, "I want to be, I want to experience whatever this...this window is going to show me". haha
It's like Shakespeare's "all the men are players"... hahahahahaha ahahahaha
DZ: That’s funny...
CK: Yeah... it's that deep.
DZ: That’s funny...
CK: Yeah it says a lot—with a little.
You can take it on a superficial level, like "Oh we're all political players", but no, you're constructing your life... and how you act... and all the choices you make—or make yourself.
So you're constantly... Your whole body is regenerating, your whole mind is regenerating, you're becoming and creating as you go.
"You're doing it Live!"
That’s why everyone likes "Live" T.V., because if you don't know what’s going to happen, then it becomes exciting that way. So, that’s why things are hidden... and that's why it's more exciting to have the curiosity -- to have the abiguousness of what something means. Because when you look at the plastic and interpret it, it's actually, really amazing! It changed the whole world. You wouldn't have the modern world without it.
Then at the same time you're like "Oh shit!", like, all this other crap's happening - what do we do? Then, you have that balance of: both things need to exist... but it's kinda like that interplay of uhhh, creating and destroying simultaneously, forever in a loop. Heh.
DZ: Yeah
CK: like an epoch kinda thing.
DZ: That’s exactly what my heavy ceramic abstractions are! (not on the website currently) We’re going to collaborate on a new series of Terraforms together. Heavy ceramic sculptures inhabited by plants...stayed tuned. Follow us on Instagram to see our progress and completed works.
CK: “Subscribe to our gossip” haha…give you the “hot takes” of generic ramblings and pent up aggression.
You need—more anger. haha, I’m joking. No, you won’t be angry.
DZ: So why “F$$k Them Bees”?
CK: Because every time we make a choice, it's like, you "care"... but you really don't care that much that you'd change what you're doing... Heh.
DZ: Yeah...
CK: Like on your "behavioral" level... sure you care (a little bit), but then there comes that level of convenice where people are like "Meh, fuck it."
DZ: Yeah...
CK: Human nature — the scale of it — if you think too much about it, you're more likely to be like "Oh, there's so much shit to fix, why bother. Fuck it." But if you don’t think,(just act) then you can "tick it" into "That’s something good I did". *tick*
...
So, that’s why the series is called "F$$k them bees", but the bees are the root to everything being alive, and flowering and living. They're there so the predators need to eat it, and without them, the whole food-chain will break down, because the pollinators can't pollinate and the plants can't flower and interact...
...the mushrooms have a symbiotic relationship with the plants(shout out to Dr. Fun Guy on Instagram), and we have a symbiotic relationship with the plants...the air...the everything. It's all connected.
It's just people like to think in the short-term, so that’s the natural "fuck it" attitude is the impulse.
DZ: Well it's not to say people are all bad, this is just who we are.
CK: Yeah yeah, it's just human nature! So that's why [the series of paintings] is called that.
DZ: F$$k them bees! Hahahaha I think it’s hilarious. In the “lose your mind” definition. Modern dictionaries dumbed down the meaning of “hilarious” to just merriment and a lot of laughter, which is a shame.
To read the end of the transcript, please shoot DZ an e-mail. Cher answers the question: “Why paint?” and frankly, we don’t want that part scrubbed by search engines on our public blog.