Slipknot percussionist Shawn Crahan (a.k.a. Clown) isn’t just good at hitting things, he’s also got the mind of an artist and a keen eye for detail. In addition to expressing himself through videos, Crahan has taken thousands of creative photos over the years, and we’re proud that he’s chosen HeadbangersBlog.com as a platform to exhibit some of the shots in a weekly guest blog filled with candid commentary. Click “more” to see the latest installment of “The Eye of a Clown.”
This is Polaroid scanned with layers of different things in order to get all the distortion I need because nothing’s perfect. I don’t spend a lot of time trying to create it, I just let it all happen. This was done in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Slipknot were playing there. If you look down that hall there’s a tour bus. I was hired to potentially do some artwork for the Wu-Tang Clan, so I set out on a little journey to find something that could represent the Wu-Tang Clan. I’m a firm believer that if you work to find it, it will find you and you will find it.
This represents that experiment in my art. You have to get outside and you have to go look for it. It’s not gonna be right there. Sure, you can have the tools and make it appear and prove me wrong. Of course we can shoot what’s in front of us all day long, but it’s great to go out and be convinced that you’re going to find it. So, I went out and found this.
I love this kind of stuff because I’m fascinated with death and I’m fascinated with the randomness of everything else but human life. T his is so beautiful on so many different levels. On one level, you have this bird whose thing in life is to fly, and it’s still and broke and dead, and there’s no more flying. But it looks like the flying continued with the way that the organs and everything are coming towards the lens. And I’m using a fisheye just to get a little movement. It’s just everything I love to look at because this is so important it makes almost everything else unimportant. I’m looking at something that flies and it’s dead. It can do something I cannot do, but I think I’m human and I think I’m so special. And I look at this and it’s just so random. It got hit and you can see the direction it was going.
I think it’s very important in art to continuously look at your own mortality, so I do a lot of that. I go out and look for this, not for any morbid reason, but to study it. This is it. This is a car crash. This is a bicycle accident. This is everything we don’t want to look at, but it’s right outside our window and it’s real and surreal and heavy. I was on my belly, centimeters from that last splash of blood, taking in the smell. Fans are walking by. They have no idea it’s me. I’m waiting for people to get out of my shot all for what I do, and that’s to have this. And that, to me, is instant gratification.
Check back on Friday when HeadbangersBlog.com presents part one of an in-depth two-part podcast interview with Crahan, in which we discuss Slipknot, metal, photography and other art.
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