Anyone who's really spent time in Miami will tell you the feeling of being watched there is unique. Far from DC's biopolitical espionage, LA's flashgun feeding frenzy, or the Big Apple's paranoiac jungle vision, the spray painted eyes found on a wall in every district makes it feel like Miami's watching your back through every drug deal, even when it isn't. The ubiquitous peepers are by graffiti-turned-street-turned-fine artist Ahol Sniffs Glue, a name renowned to Miamians in-the-know (believe me, I watched drivers stop and honk while we were filming VICE's guide to the Magic City, #miamifulltime).
This weekend, Sniffs Glue is throwing an official book release party for Cellular Fuckery, a signed and numbered self-published book of his collages, limited to 100 copies, at Rightside Recordings in Allapattah. At 4 PM EST, he'll be on University of Miami's WVUM (90.5 FM if you're "just passing through") to discuss the book. On Monday he told the Miami New Times's Minhae Shim Roth that, "I call it Cellular Fuckery because it's all cellular-phone chopped-up images. […] I've managed to make social commentary that's time-sensitive, and digital chopping-ups on an app that's a bobo-fuckin' Photoshop… Some people said, 'Oh shit, your graphic design shit is kind of weak.' Well, duh, it's made on a cell phone and cropped on my finger." You're going to want to tune in.
"I opened [the book] with a cell phone cityscape to appetize [sic] the direction implied by the title and cover," the artist tells Creators, referencing the square, 40-page book's cover. A grainy childhood photo shows the artist holding an uzi backwards over his shoulder, wearing an aqua Miami Dolphins Super Bowl 1985 t-shirt (yes, the game in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective). "Cover picture is me in Hialeah 86–87."
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Straight from the city that brought you last year's Best Picture, Moonlight, Ahol Sniffs Glue provided us with a few exclusive images from his new book:
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