Tony Labat
October 13 2008
Brian Storts (left) and Tony Labat at the Orchard, June 18, 2009
The Orchard Projects:As an avid golfer, do you find any connection between the sport and your studio practice as a fine artist?
Tony Labat:They enhance each other.
TOP: Has the game of golf changed your life?
TL: No, it enhanced it. I walk more.
TOP: What was it like growing up in Miami during the seventies and the disco era. Did that experience inspire you to become an artist?
TL: I was more part of the glam-rock, platform shoes and big hair circles. I was already an artist.
TOP: Is it true that you were a bit of a fashionista during that time? What was your favorite wardrobe?
TL: I would say tight jeans, hip-huggers-ripped and patched, a tight little t-shirt with my belly showing, my hand-made over-the-shoulder leather bag (from London), my suede brown and purple long coat and of course my knee high snake skin boots (from London).
TOP: Didn't you design clothing for disco bands when you were living in Miami?
TL: Not Disco bands but Glam-rock bands, and yes, they were one-of-a-kind custom made in London by a cobbler that I was working with, the name of my store was Rubber Sole. So yes, I designed shoes and boots for bands. Two of my clients were from the Miami Dolphins, Mercury Morris, and Larry Csonka.
Left: Mercury Morris; Right: Larry Csonka
TOP: You're also a connoisseur of the Cadillac. What is your favorite out of the many that you have owned?
TL: A 1972 El Dorado. What’s there not to like about those 70s land-yachts?
TOP: What's the most exciting period in San Francisco over the last 30 years you've spent in The City?
TL: 1979
TOP: What do think San Francisco has in store for the art and music worlds in the coming five or ten years?
TL: It is too stupid right now to predict, it could get worse.
Tony Labat at the Orchard, June 18, 2009
TOP: Given your extensive impact and background in the academic community and the many changes that you have witnessed, what's your take on the future of the institution of fine art education?
TL: Cooking schools.
TOP: Is it true that you moved to New York with Karen Finley to further your art career and while you were gone the San Francisco Art Institute approached you with a sweet offer to return and teach?
TL: That’s a rumor… Karen was in Chicago, and the deal was not that sweet; I just couldn’t say no to Paul [Kos] and I wanted to hang with Howard Fried, and you know, there was always something interesting going on in Studio 9 and 10…
TOP: If that were to happen today would you accept it?
TL: That depends on which school and how sweet the deal is?
Tony Labat at the Orchard, June 18, 2009
TOP: You told me once that controversy has an uncanny ability to find you? How has that affected you personally?
TL: I could be in denial but it has made me a better person.
TOP: Do you have any regrets?
TL: You don’t have enough space here but really, what is there to regret when it is all in retrospect…
TOP: Sadly, one of your closest friends and comrades, David Ireland, recently passed away. What would you like people to remember most about David Ireland?
TL: That he gave us more that we gave him. Lighting the fireplace, cooking, talking about women…
Eamon Ore-Giron (left) and Tony Labat at the Orchard, June 17, 2009