Jeff Klapperich of The Scattered Arts Collective

Jeff Klapperich is a co-founder of Denver, Colorado's The Scattered Arts Collective.  He also takes photographs that seem to transcend the definition of photograph.  We're gonna get to the bottom of this.


What is The Scattered Arts Collective?

The Scattered Arts is a grassroots group of artists working passionately, dedicated to making art available to people who wouldn't normally be interested an art show, and contrarily if a person is interested in art, putting in a light they've never seen it in before.

We'll do a show in a junkyard. We'll get five bands, and a kabuki theater troop to play it. The music: a nice hard junk blues. The theater troop uses a gallon or two of fake blood, and requests the use of a tarp. They have huge ornate masks, costumes, lighting... in a junkyard! We'll build a labyrinth from the cars piled up in the lot, hang all the art within it. Badly light it with cruddy generators and clamp lights. We'll have a fire sale, "Everything must go! If you don't buy it, we'll burn it!" Throw eight kegs of free micro brew served out of a hollowed out bus, a dash of hard drugs, a 16 year old kid puking his guts out in front, a 70 year-old junk yard dog, one porta potty, Fire dancing, a drum circle, construction detours, vicious mosquitoes, rain... and you've got the coolest goddamn art show anyone has ever fucking been too. And the art! The fucking art! Beautiful shit!

Or how about we have a small, one night music festival. We'll do an early spring block party. Get 4 spaces surrounding one major club in Denver, the Larimer Lounge. Use the bar at the end of the block, a music store next to it, two residential spaces (one of which is notorious for throwing huge DJ parties), and one dingy, dive bar of a shitty local rock club. Invite 16 acts, three DJs, 4 filmmakers, 37 visual artists, fire performers, break-dancers, and a bunch of models to run around in little or no clothing. First we'll go in and completely redesign the rock club with huge 4'x8' panels constructed of materials found in alleyways coupled with huge photographs mounted on scrap car hoods. Feature large rock bands. Then turn one space into a straight gallery. With a small film screening room in back surrounded by a fire sculpture garden. Put DJs in the next space that houses some of the largest sound equipment in town. Put singer songwriters in the music shop, and 2 to 3 piece bands in the bar at the corner. Paint the naked people in zebra stripe body paint and have them run from venue to venue. Get a double-decker bus, and project silent film from the top of it to the side of one of the buildings, with fire dancers, and break dancers surrounding it.

Mind you, these shows are free to the public... Shit yes.

I could go on and on about these things. Each one is totally different and totally on its own.

But why the fuck Denver, Colorado?

One of the reasons this whole thing works so well is because of the city. There are so many young artists learning to make some kind of name for themselves, and there is hardly any support for it. The city has so many beautiful qualities. It set in some of the most beautiful landscape I've ever been in. It’s home for certain. The mountains will always be mother to me.  There was a call for it in the air. We all needed it, and we just stepped up to make it happen.

The problem is the city has little faith in the young thinkers to make it happen. Simply because as young thinkers, they didn't make it happen. If you've been here for three decades hammering it out, then we'll respect you. It takes years of suffering and eating shit because nobody cares too much weather you're there or not, and after that, they'll respect you for doing it that way. Screw that, of course young talent will fail if you don't support it. Young needs nurturing for Christ’s sake. Gallery owners out here are so concerned with being able to make there rent is the reason why they get no support. This is a sports town. I've seen Denver construct 3 giant sports stadiums in my lifetime. Three! Fuck man, millions of fucking dollars. Now they're going to build three museums. This is not the way, people. Culture can't be bought. It has to be raised. The culture is everywhere, but people are so blinded by the strip malls that they've forgotten that culture is more then shops. Art is important to culture. It marks it. It reflects it. It defines it, defies it and liberates it. Especially when shown in the format we're providing. People not only get to see the art on the wall, or hear the music being played; they get to feel like they are a part of it, and suddenly for the first time they take some pride in it, and connect with it. It's at that point that REAL appreciation takes hold. It's a raw atmosphere that only a place like Denver could provide. We're building the scene from the ground up, and people need it so bad. It hits them, and suddenly they really feel something or get something, and are inspired to be artists in they're own right.

How would you describe your photography?

My work is a stride to stretch and contort my medium in a way that reflects how I stretch and contort my reality. My pursuit is one of excellence, offering viewers a look at what they cannot see in the hope that they too will be inspired to stretch and contort themselves.

I'm using a process that is so far off the beaten path at this point that it could only be called mine, but doing it with the intention of communicating so as not to alienate the viewer. I do it to baffle, to amaze, to make people believe that there is more then meets the eye. I do it to inspire wonder.

At this point I'm doing complex 9 to 12 layer images, constructed entirely on one 4x5 negative. Through the use of polaroids and little paper stencils I lay pieces of texture into specific areas of a negative, and layer until it abstracts. I've been laying them around a central portrait at this point, but I've been working on a group that uses whole figures.

Ultimately I want to be taken seriously as a photographer. I've had to fight being labeled as a promoter by consistently putting out my best shit ever, and I get to see that reflected by the quality of the work of my colleagues. I have seen some amazing talent bloom, and it is truly inspiring.

I am them as they are me. And it’s true; it’s why the group has any validity. We're all doing it to do it together.

I love saying shit like that.

Does photography get you laid?

I'll tell you what gets me laid more then photography. Playing harmonica with my partner in crime Tim Pourbaix. His latest tune Clinic. Is a ruckus adventure into the personal life of every Denverite. The chorus goes, "You're in the clinic now, waitin' for the doctor to tell you what she gave you."  The song has gotten me laid on numerous occasions. I shit you not. Wailing away like no other to a song about STDs has gotten laid more then any one consistent thing.

How’s your love life these days?

Love life? HA!

Are you kidding? I'm an emotional wreck. I've been fucked around, and fucked around so many people that my love life karma is obviously eternally fucked. I can't be with anyone for longer then a month or two, and I'm constantly getting stifled. You know how it goes. I'm good for like one or two nights of non-stop fucking, and then I'm done, out of there. Shit. I live and die by the three fuck policy, well no I don't. I'm always hitting' up ex-girlfriends when it's time to drain the old seed sack.

Come to think of it, I could really use some strange right now...