Ilja Karilampi

<img class="wp-image-113158 size-medium" src="https://static.purple.fr/2015/06/hendrixincident-300×183.jpg", 2013 Leslie Fritz Gallery, New York. Courtesy of the artist.

houses and hip-hop

interview by ARIELLA WOLENS
portrait by MAXIME BALLESTEROS

 

Ilja Karilampi blurs the line between reality and fiction, as seen in his work The Chief Architect of Gangsta Rap (2009), something that works to legitimize rap culture while subverting it through the artist’s imagination. Karilampi tells the story of Dr. Dre’s past as part of the funk group World Class Wreckin’ Cru, comparing his fastidious style as a sound engineer to the architect and urban planner Le Courbusier. The work is delivered with the authority and tone of a historian, heightening its tension when mixed with the absurdity and genius wit of suggestions such as: “Could Dre have designed a luxury cabin in the woods worthy of MTV Cribs?”

ARIELLA WOLENS — Your work hoodumentary deals with the housing…