07/04/2022 Viper the Rapper

Viper at Apt 13
Part 2

When we organized the first show of three Viper paintings at our space, there was an expectation that he would be in attendance at the event. He had driven from Texas to a town outside of Philadelphia to play a show and intended to make the trek to Providence the morning after, a 7 hour drive. He felt pooped the morning he was supposed to leave and called to say he didn’t have it in him to drive over but said he’s got ideas for “part 2”. I will just add that I don’t always know to what extent Lee’s statements are the truth or fiction as he’s a prolific liar, but we agreed on going through with his plan knowing it may generate fascinating results.

This iteration would involve him spending a month in Houston to paint a whole new body of work, drive all of it himself from Houston to Providence and perform a show at Louis Restaurant. He managed to drive to Providence with around 31 incredible paintings on canvas and brought them to me at the building. The plan for him to soundcheck at 6 PM later in the evening did not happen as he dodged our calls and failed to arrive. He became frustrated when I told him I was telling the fans at Louis the show wasn’t happening after we waited hours. He demanded that he get back all the work from the show and drive back to Houston. He raged outside of the building and took the work back.

The Viper Part 2 show consists of three paintings of this body of work that I forgot to return to him that night (as they were stashed away for a prospective show at Public Access) and the hardware remaining from the original hanging of the 31 works in which no comprehensive documentation of said install exists. Lee later proposed the idea of rotating the works in his possession weekly but that didn’t end of happening.

The painting “Voluptuous Alien Woman W/ Blue Eyes Meets Acapella Viper” was later loaned to Leo Fitzpatrick for a show at his space Public Access. When the painting was returned to me there was a very small wine stain on it that wasn’t there before and it was really beautiful to me because I was imagining what the energy at the opening felt like as people would huddle around it.

That’s what Part 2 feels like to me, thinking about possibilities, what could’ve been, etc. Viper is a radical figure and through this show, he often gives you a lot of access into his own hypothesis about endlessness or aspiration.

——Joshua Boulos