Comme Des… Ant People?

By Nerida Little / February 14th, 2012 in Talks / California / 116 views

The ongoing collaboration between The Generic Man footwear label and Comme Des Garcons SHIRT has provided us with a new kind of spokesman. The philosopher. The street artist. The man who will not help you make sense of anything, but will definitely provide you with ample anecdotes for years to come.

Chris Johanson is such a man. Set against a backdrop of primary colors, the film Words Of Advice shows Johanson talking to the camera and sharing with us his philosophy on life. Every now and again you see him painting on the wall behind him and the floor underneath him. It’s difficult to define his particular philosophy, or the philosophy of the footwear collection. All we can really say is that it involves oysters, fish, the sun, cockroaches, canoes and ants who might be ruling the world.

This trippy short film is directed by Aaron Rose, filmmaker extraordinaire and child of the Beautiful Losers art movement of the 1990s that he documented in a film of the same name in 2008. The colors are bold and bright and Johanson has the personality to match. The best part of this film comes in a down moment when Johanson is painting “our old friend the sun”:

“I have some serious advice. Trip on it, but don’t fry it.”

Sage words from a unique man.