Bask's Thoughtcrimes displayed at Mission Space

The Mission Space has moved from '70s rock-and-roll to street art of the 21st century with its latest show, Thoughtcrimes. Saturday, Nov. 2 was the opening of the new exhibit of works by Ales Hostomsky, otherwise known as Bask. Originally from the Czech Republic, he was raised in Florida and now mainly lives in Detroit. The northern city inspires him with its excess of grittiness and broad spectrum of wealth. The streets also provide him with ample materials with which to create his art, much of which is done with found objects such as pieces of wood, newspapers and magazines. Bask often uses familiar symbols, such as company logos and money signs, in his work. He uses hand-drawn and hand-cut stencils and graffiti techniques to replicate the familiar emblems. The artist is self-taught, so the final effect is one of untutored immediacy. He uses his art as a way of expressing how he sees the state of the country around him. He takes the problems that he sees -- the way that people are subjected to a system that essentially eats them up -- and makes art about these issues. Bask tries to keep his works from being dogmatic because he thinks that audience interpretation is an important part of art. As he puts it, "They [the paintings] are all usually subliminal. I want you to look at the piece and see what it means to you."

Walking into the Mission Space gallery, one is immediately struck by how unorthodox this show is. On the far wall, there is a grouping of small matching yellow and black stencil paintings, the central one bearing the phrase "Delicious thought crimes," with a man who looks like he should be holding a beer stein but instead is holding a hand grenade. The works seem to bleed out of the frames and onto the wall. The words, "Bask in your thought crime" circling around a hand grenade, are spray painted all over the yellow ground of the wall and in between the framed works. In an instance like this, his graffiti artist roots really show through clearly.

The rest of the works are contained within their frames, but that does not make their statements any less apparent. Bask uses a collage technique of magazines, written and stenciled words in works like "Meat Market," one of the most arresting images in the show if only for its subject matter -- the outer edge of the work is a collage of images of people from porno magazines. The images are made less obvious on first glance through the use of a yellow wash of paint that mutes the colors. Across the top is stenciled in block letters, "Now Hiring for All Positions / Great exploitation possibilities." Below this is a mishmash of catchphrases, money symbols, a magazine cutout of a beef advertisement, a small girl and a naked woman with her eyes scratched out. The title makes explicit the kind of message the viewer is supposed to derive from this visual assault of pornographic images, yet the final message is left up to the viewer. Such an eclectic mix of elements allows for many possible viewer interpretations.

All of the images that Bask uses are employed in a similar way to the images in "Meat Market." His heavy-handed method that employs bright colors, dripping paint and rough surfaces brings to mind his background as a graffiti artist, but it evokes something more as well. Even familiar company logos start to look pornographic when juxtaposed with dollar and cent signs, comic book characters and his recurring image of babies in diapers. Bask takes what he sees as American, and more specifically what is wrong with America, and makes it look as disgusting and excessive as he sees it to be.

Bask has been actively trying to subvert culture in this mode for five years, and he has been at work even longer than that in the capacity of a graffiti artist. These days, the biggest influence on his art is the book 1984, by George Orwell. He says that he always had tendencies to go against "Big Brother," and reading that book really clarified things for him. That book is not only important to him for its messages, but because 1984was the year that he moved from the Czech Republic to the United States. His entire family left the country because of the repressive government and lack of opportunities. It looks as if he is still reacting to this move in his artwork. "Most of my pieces are coming from a social perspective," he claims. Bask tries to keep the strong and overt political statements out of his art. He knows that heavy handed political themes in art usually repel audiences more than they attract. In order to allow easier reception of his works, they all have a "comic twist to them." Through this oblique approach to subjects, Bask maintains a wider audience. In the end, he just wants people to look at his work and to make up their own minds to what it all means. "I like to let them [the viewers] make their own analysis."

This exhibit will be on display until Nov. 30. The Mission Space is located at 338 N. Charles St.