QCA Art: Toban Nichols

Meet Toban Nichols. He’s a friend and what we like to call a deconstructivist artist that’s based in Los Angeles. Yeah, it may be “too out there” for some of you, but we like it. Besides his wonderful taste in music, camp and art, we love how his brain works. Juxtaposing things we love (stuff like naked guys) with flowers and bright, colorful lego-like bricks and other delights. Case in point, his latest video creation taking old found porn footage and making it something else, Mysteries of Carom. (Carom is a type of billiard game).

Toban describes it as, “The video is meant as a contemplation of a specific sexual act that is difficult to view, or for some people hard to understand. Upon discovering the origin video, I found the subject matter complex and disturbing but also felt compelled to use the negative feelings I was having to create a work of art that is multi-layered, interesting and has a sense of humor and wonder about itself. The soundtrack is meant to provide context and assist the audience in the formation of a complex narrative and should bring about a feeling of child-like wonder, whimsy and surreal if not disgusted interest in the world we live in. The music is meant to be disparate and opposite of the source video. The comedic and curious stance the video takes is meant as an elevation of this type of subject matter to an artistic context.”