Fire Sale Everything Must Go

(Photos by Matthew Childs)

The jackpot of someone with notably good taste in art, music, and relatables opening up a storage locker of all things dreamy from their teens and 20s and saying, "Here, have a look," is what can comprise a legit gallery show these days. Putting it up for sale, at accessible prices not of legit gallery caliber, is, like, unheard of, unless it's your sort-of friend who's gone way too deep in his heroin habit and is eliminating everything for the love of drugs, or else your run-of-the-mill irresponsible buddy who got busted by the IRS for not paying taxes for five years and suddenly is experiencing that new adult reality called "garnished wages" and needs cash fast. You feel kinda vulturey for picking through a lifetime of true fun and nostalgia, but hey, that's a $30 Moog for you, so just fork over the cash and slink away like the bad person you are. In this case, though, Aaron Rose is selling remnants of his time in NYC, which he's kept in locked in storage for the last decade, and there's no shame-buying implied.

For a couple weeks at Known gallery in Los Angeles, this "Fire Sale" includes but is not limited to prints, photographs, posters, vintage skateboards, British fashion magazines from the 80s, books, T-shirts, art sneakers, original artwork, graffiti zines, luggage, mix tapes, and whatever else was in there. Proceeds from the sale will go to support programs for Make Something, a D.I.Y. art school for teens. He sent us some photos of what to expect, and answered some questions about it.

VICE: Why have you now decided to get rid of these things after so many years? 
Aaron Rose: I got married earlier this year and with that partnership came a major reassessment of priorities. I started looking at all aspects of my life: personal, professional, financial, and spiritual. One day my wife Lucy and I were at my storage space and she noticed this pile of 600 blank VHS tapes in there. She was like, "Why do you keep those things?" I've been storing so many things like that for years and it got me thinking about the whole concept of storage. The way that ten years of my New York life had hidden away in this black box in Glendale for over a decade. I just send a check to pay for it every month. I thought of that space as a metaphor for my mind and decided it was time to do a housecleaning.

Why were they in storage that long anyway?
I don't know! There was part of me that justified it all by saying to myself, "Oh, this will be worth something one day." On the other hand, most of the things in there will never be worth any more than they are now. It's just stuff. I think maybe I was just trying to hold on to my past, some kind of innocence from my younger days? Who knows why we justify things. All I know is that I suddenly began feeling very benevolent and thought about all the people who would enjoy seeing the stuff that I had in there.

Can you give us a couple secret highlights?
It's hard for me to judge because it's my stuff, but there's about 150 posters and artist prints in there. Some really fantastic ones. As we have been pulling things out there are some images I haven't seen in almost 20 years. Some really amazing fanzines and skateboard decks too. Oh, and I'm selling off my whole collection of British fashion magazines from the 1980's (The Face, i-D, Blitz), that I used to have sent to my parents' house when I was a teenager. There are some really great images in those magazines. It was a very stylish time.

Aaron Rose's Fire Sale
July 7 - 21, 2012
Known Gallery
441 North Fairfax, LA

The opening is Saturday night 7 to 11 PM with a performance by Money Mark, Tommy Guerrero, Ray Barbee, and Fredo Ortiz.

@lizzyarmstrong