b. 1978, Los Angeles, California, US. Lives and works in Portsmouth & Hampton, New Hampshire, US
All of my work centers around recycling. From physical pieces made with fabric, paper or whatever has been resuced from the garbage to constructing installations out of castoff objects and materials, composing experimental sound pieces, making ridiculous videos and performing I am constantly re-using and recycling. I actually dislike using new or custom-made materials for things. I am not the kind of artist who has things made for thousands of dollars or the kind of artist who will buy up a bunch of things to use. I try to get the most out of what I have around me or what I can find for free and then re-integrate into a new context. I am also a gay artist though most of my work doesn't really deal with a "gay agenda" or "gaysploitation". I have great respect for gay artists who do shove homosexuality right into the faces of art lovers but I feel like exploring other areas of thoughts, concepts, etc. that either get ignored or just un-exploited. I'm obsessed with how we as humans generally use and abuse but usually don't re-use (or try to maximise the use of) what we're consuming, which can also bleed over into ideas as well as physical objects. We are currently consuming far mar than we are re-using and the main goal I hope to achieve is that people can be inspired by this idea to try to view any object or absurd idea as re-usable or justifiable in some way.
In September of 2007, John Fanning founded ellO gallery&shop in Portsmouth, New Hampshire along with partners John Winters, Byrdy DiLando and Glenn DiLando. He is currently managing the gallery along with the other members in a co-operative effort highlighting emerging and affordable contemporary art from around the world. His work has been featured in the gallery in various group shows and has orchestrated and curated many of the shows. His concentration with the gallery is with multimedia art & communication, national/international relations & initialization of future projects.
Solo Exhibitions
April 2006 - La Spezia, Italy @ Galleria Baus (+ 2 performances + residency)
April 2006 - Skopje, Macedonia @ Ludnica (+2 performances)
Group Exhibitions
April/May 2008 - Portsmouth, NH, US @ ellO gallery&shop
Jan/Feb 2008 - Portsmouth, NH, US @ ellO gallery&shop
Sept/Oct 2007 - Portsmouth, NH, US @ ellO gallery&shop
April/May 2007 - Sofia, Bulgaria @ Pistolet Gallery, "Eskimo Cozmetics"
October 2005 - San Francisco, CA, USA @ Rock Paper Scissors Collective
March 2005 - Chicago, IL, USA @ Tangerine Arts Collective
April 2004 - Portsmouth, NH @ private studio group show
Selected Performances*
2007:
Graz, Austria @ Interpenetration Festival
Ljbuljana, Slovenija @ DRMK festival
Castelfranco Veneto, Italy @ 8mm Festival
Bolgona, Italy @ XM24
2006:
Sofia, Bulgaria @ Dauhaus
Skopje, Macedonia @ Ludnica (2 performances)
Athens, Greece @ Small Music Theatre
La Spezia, Italy @ Galeria Baus (2 performances)
Ravenna, Italy @ Spartaco
Abbiategrasso, Italy @ Il Folletto
Hannover, Germany @ Silke-Arp-Bricht
Rotterdam, Holland @ WORM
Portsmouth, NH, USA @ Chutney Flatz
2005:
Portsmouth, NH, USA @Chutney Flatz
Portland, ME, USA @ Strange Maine
Portsmouth, NH, USA @ Tong/Muddy
Porto, Portugal @ Passos Manuel
Porto, Portugal @ Maus Habitos
Ljubljana, Slovenija @ Club Gromka
Graz, Austria @ Sonntags Abstrakt/ppc
Tarcento, Italy@ Hybrida
Milan, Italy @ La Cueva No-Art Gallery
Bologna, Italy @ xm24
Malmö, Sweden @ Inkonst
Århus, Denmark @ Det Jyske Kunstakademi
Göteborg, Sweden @ iDeal festival
Enschede, Holland @ Planetart
Nieuwleusen, Holland @ de Hondenkoekjesfabriek
Antwerp, Belgium @ Freaks End Future
Tienen, Belgium @ Diskoster
Brussels, Belgium @ L'Espace Marx
Rotterdam, Holland @ De Player
Amsterdam, Holland @ OCCII
2004:
Portsmouth, NH, USA @ Tong/Muddy
Athens, Greece @ Small Music Theatre
Berlin, Germany @ Maria/Club Transmediale Frestival
Skopje, Macedonia @ gallery Tocka
2003:
Bratislava, Slovakia @ Studio 12
Barcelona, Spain @ Sala Magic
Barcelona, Spain @ Distrito Diagonal
L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain @ CSO La Lokeria
Budapest, Hungary @ A38-Ultrahang Festival
Barcelona, Spain @ Les Naus
Brooklyn, NY, USA @ SmackMellon
Barcelona, Spain @ Cable Records
Barcelona, Spain @ RAS Gallery
* full detail of performances is listed on the performances/actions page.
Massaccesi is a pseudonym of myself (John Fanning). Many years ago I decided to adopt a pseudonym for myself, primarily to add an identity to myself that was not my own but stolen from someone who was a maestro of the pseudonym. A conceptual joke that has caused little convtroversy, but many spelling errors.
Aristide Massaccesi is the real name of infamous Italian gore/porn/trash film director Joe D’amato. He only used his real name once for directing (his first film 'Death Smiles on a Murderer/La Morte ha Sorriso All'Assasino). Afterwards he constantly dreamt up pseudonyms in place of his real name, the most famous being "Joe D'Amato". He would often times do various jobs on his films and replace his real name with pseudonyms (male & female) or had specific pseudonyms for specific types of films (i.e. "Kevin Mancuso" was his usual name for directing scholcky sci-fi stuff). The number of pseudonyms he used numbers around 50 or so, even more if you count variations on the spellings of the names.
For me it's important to have a non-English based artist name. I have a lot of philosophies on that and other aspects of the name that both integrate and go beyond the original man. I find one major element of the name is related to the fact that while Massaccesi wanted to continue doing trashy horror/sci-fi style movies he was generally sucked into the pornography vacuum in order to make money. It's highly unfortunate, really. His initial erotic films were alright for what they were, but he soon had to deteriorate into typical straight-up porn. Anyway, I highly suggest seraching out movies from the original Massaccesi if you have a high tolerance for trash & an affinity for the cheap but effective. His best era was the 70's, when it seemed almost anything could get into theatres. And sadly Aristide died in January of '99. I'm sad I never got to meet him.
