It’s Art…But not as we know it…
Contemporary art discussion, offbeat enthusiasms & talking to one of two Rather Fine Fellows…
By Laura Carroll
Ron Hanson, a genuine kiwi lad with esoteric sensibilities states that “when you open yourself up to chance, you open yourself up to the world”. Coming from Ron Hanson, this statement seems unequivocally true.
Ron Hanson pictured on the left with brother and co-founder Mark on the right. Ron was wearing a back brace at the time the photograph was taken as a result of a motorbike injury.
As editor and co-creator of the seminal White Fungus magazine, Ron Hanson just happens to be brimming with nonchalance, lacking any pretensions. So, when Ron kindly agreed to talk with me, I had to ask at least one important question I hadn't seen asked in any other interviews with him that I had read: Has the editor of White Fungus ever really eaten (chewed and swallowed) white fungus? When one first comes across an issue of White Fungus magazine, one has the feeling that they've been let in on an awesome secret, or discovered a new favourite food. In actual fact, White Fungus magazine is named after a common food in Taiwan. The image from a can of white fungus, originally discovered by Ron’s brother Mark in a Taiwanese supermarket, is emblazoned on every cover of the magazine.
Ron tells me, yes, he has indeed eaten white fungus in soup and describes the texture as “rubbery”. Ron went on to say however, that the appropriation of the logo was part of a fascination with consumer goods.
The art world’s fascination with consumerism – particularly seen in Pop Art – seems to be part of a common dialogue in ‘cutting edge’ art. Contemporary art seems to place the artist as nemesis and collaborator: challenging both the hyper normative mainstream and the art world itself.
As to being let in, via White Fungus magazine, on an awesome secret, if not a favourite food, the feeling of having the mysteries of the world unveiled before one’s very eyes is proving popular. White Fungus is now distributed globally, in 20 different countries. The magazine has been carried by some of the most iconic art galleries in the world including the Tate Gallery in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in London. Closer to home, it has also been part of interdisciplinary events at both Wellington’s Adam Art Gallery and Enjoy Public Art Gallery.
But White Fungus is the progeny of its creators. The originality and uniqueness that piques both intellectual and aesthetic interest in the magazine is the love child of its creators Ron and Mark Hanson.
The magazine itself developed from humble beginnings, and sidesteps what Ron terms “consumer logic”. Wellington first witnessed White Fungus as a hand-made smudgy photocopied protest art stunt, protesting the demolition of historic parts of Cuba Street and the now realised Wellington City Bypass. Early issues of the magazine were considered “a gift to the community”. It wasn’t until issue number four that the co-founders offered a year’s subscription for just $20 NZD.
Upper Cuba Street, Wellington, prior to demolition to make way for the current inner city bypass.
The magazine’s founders Ron and Mark Hanson have in the past collaborated with the late Peter McLeavey, whose art gallery has long been a fixture of Cuba Street, and advertised in early issues alongside other local galleries and record stores.
Then, as now, the duo regularly organise tours and collaborations with performance and sound artists. This is the sort of thing the brothers are continuing to do internationally, collaborating with art galleries (in the past, including the Adam Art Gallery in the Victoria University), organising raucous art events, and being just a little bit political in the mix. Actually White Fungus is a lot political, in between lashings of art and music reviews. For example, Ron Hanson writes in ‘Welcome to White Fungus’ in issue 13 of the magazine, “Power has its limits and there will always be those who escape its bonds”.
Whilst creating a manifesto for intuitive, imaginative and intellectual self-expression, Ron says that the accessibility of White Fungus means that it can act as a bridge between the mainstream and the avant-garde. Creating a fertile environment for themselves to collaborate with other artists, while staying autonomous and authentic means, as Ron states emphatically, “it’s about creating agency”.
This furiously independent mindset has meant 11 years of hard work, and sidestepping the gift of a comfortable existence were they to enter 'the family business’. Ron says he felt there really wasn’t a place for him in the mainstream. Besides, a cosy existence just seemed “boring”. Boring is something the magazine is certainly not. The fact that the cover of the magazine has no subtext what so ever to indicate its contents means that only the curious are rewarded by actually opening a copy.
Ron answers insightfully when I ask if there is a relationship to inspired creativity and serendipity. He says that if we only access sanctioned channels via the mainstream, the potential range of outcomes diminishes. Again there are echoes of Ron’s challenge to create agency for himself, meaning in a world of branded pseudo identities, there is opportunity to be truly ambitiously unique and idealistic.The fact is that despite his international cult status, talking with Ron Hanson left me surprised to find an instantly disarming and genuine person.
It is a mark of the exceptional to escape the bourgeois and become truly radical. This ‘radical real’ is part of Ron’s charm, yet in his ability to be totally revealing, he avoids the pitfalls of the kiwi psyche in not being overly self-deprecating. This may well be the consequence of having an American father. Ron seems eternally optimistic in his charming ability to engage fully with the Now. Ron says he had to find art, and that their family was not one of “artistic intellectuals”. He says, with ever so slight awareness of the possibility of being passé, that for him the Beatles’ White Album was the first time he engaged with the avant-garde.
Having completed his Master’s degree at Victoria University, Ron has travelled extensively across America and Denmark. Learning Chinese only after moving to Taiwan in a desperate attempt to escape the mundane and find work teaching English in order to support the White Fungus project, Ron Hanson’s integrity is a testament to true individuality. His profile may also be a catalyst for encouraging others to join the less travelled path. I get the feeling ultimately that Ron wants all like-minded individuals to get it together and travel the path never travelled before, not just the path less travelled. Ron suggests the recipe for such success involves not being fixed in a pattern. He says “the struggle financially radicalises you” but that additionally you need “luck, sacrifice and hard work”.
Maybe the esoteric intellectual conversation and artistic stimulation are melting my brain. Awesome. I want to ask if Ron will be my best friend forever and never leave me. I hold back. I let it go, knowing that he would probably, totally, say yes if I asked.
In the background of our skyped conversation I hear the distant sounds of a strange land. Some sounds occasionally escape from the street. Is someone tuning a guitar? It’s just after 5pm in Taiwan and 11pm here in Wellington. We talk for an hour. I can’t believe how darn nice Ron is. Considering his joint venture with his brother Mark is now largely achieving global domination in the ‘cultist’ sense of the term, I determine to relinquish all ties to scepticism and commit to unadulterated admiration.
My plans to compile a library of back copies of the magazine may be hampered by the fact that some of them are just not available here. In the meantime, the White Fungus website is a means by which any of you curious intellectual types can come into possession of your very own White Fungus.
http://www.whitefungus.com/
Wellington’s Adam Art Gallery also has back issues of the magazine:
http://www.adamartgallery.org.nz/
Or visit the gallery in person. The Adam Art Gallery is open 11am-5pm Tuesday-Sunday.
