DIaBEtic DEW555

Interview with Fernando Villalvazo

2012-02-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

q) Well, first of all please tell us a little about yourself.

a)Hello I am FV and I am living in Monterrey (Mexico) right now, i have 3 afghan hounds, and I love my wife.

q)How would you describe your work?

a)Ok, let me try - we need a blender to make my work: let's put some inspiration with a little bit of kitsch, a pinch of surrealism, naïve, and pop, then a few drops of symbolism with a spoonful of lowbrow 'Et Voilá' this is my own bitter-sweet cocktail

q) Did somebody encourage you to become an artist?

a)Nobody, just the opposite

q) What is your favorite medium?

a)Drawing

q) Generally speaking, where do your ideas come from?

a)From my distopyan world

q) How long does it take to complete a piece?

a)That’s depends, if i want a paper draw or a big painting on canvas - 15 minutes, one day, never knows

q) Who are your favorite artists…and who are some artists you are currently looking/listening to?

a)Let me think… maybe Arnold Bocklin, Jean Delville, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Hieronymus Bosch, Matthias Grünewald, millais, etc. etc. etc. etc.

q) Are you represented by a gallery? Do you have any upcoming exhibits?

a)I was represented in several galleries actually I'm independent right now because I don’t believe too much in that old fashion-model.

q) Do you have any 'studio rituals'? As in, do you listen to certain types of music while working? What helps to get

you in the mood for working?

a)Just need listen music: jazz, dub, trip hop or maybe IDM – but always I need my 3 dogs near to me.

q) What is your favorite a) taste, b) sound, c) sight, d) smell, and e) tactile sensation?

a)Mio dio!!!

q) Do you have goals that you are trying to reach as an artist, what is your 'drive'? What would you like to accomplish in your 'profession'?

a)If you can't understand your goal, you'll never reach it. With the coming of a fresh year people always strive hard to have a good beginning, it's simple to me, as always, I have many painting techniques that I'll have develop this year.

q) When have you started using the Internet and what role does this form of communication play for you, personally, for your art, and for your business?

a)Internet is definitely a great tool for independent artists

q) What do you obsess over?

a)Information, Art, Books, Love.

q) Do you have prefered working hours? Do you pay attention to the time of the day or maybe specific lighting?

a)I don’t know what time and what day is today, so, no matter what time it is to do my artwork

q) Do you do commissioned works?

a)Just If I have libero arbitrio

q) Any tips for emerging artists?

a)If you don't find your artwork meaningful and rewarding, find another job

Cheers!

Interview with Etienne Zerah

2011-12-26T13:42:00.000-08:00

q) Let’s start with the basics; what's your full name, where do you live, and how old are you?

a)I’m Etienne Zerah; Etienne is an art name and Zerah is my real surname, that has mixed origins: jewish, tunisian, french, but I am Italian born and bred. I am currently living in a multiethnic district of Berlin and I came from Genoa (Italy), where I spent my last ten years. I was born in autumn 1977.

q) Do you have any formal training?

a)Sure, I attended the Artistic High School and the Fine Art Academy in Genoa, having a background as painter, only later I was interested in photography and digital works, but since I was a child, I’ve always had a strong attitude to drawing and being fashinated by art.

q) Did the place you grew up in influence your image making?

a)I was born I a small town and grown up in the country, I used to play in the woods during my childhood, for this reason I have a close relationship with nature; reacting to this I’m very fascinated by tecnology and the possibilities that it can give, so I think you can find a mix of these elements in my works.

I’m glad to have found this mix in the city where I live, so this can keep on influencing me as I like.

q) How do you come up with your concepts?

a)I’m influenced by daily facts, by news and gossips, whatever I see in the world or in the streets that hits me or annoys me, it can be a real fact or a sensation in the air; so after thinking a lot, I reach an image in my mind, that only after several shoots, tests and changes, becomes the definitive work.

At the end I just need to express my point of view.

q) Describe your creations in a clear, concise and understandable sentence. What do you call them?

a)Basically it’s a research of the visual impact and equilibrium in the images. I think these are the factors to get the objective beauty in a visual work.

q) What other mediums would you like to explore in your image making?

a)Video, surely. I’ve already tried to do something, but I need more time and I think I still have to actualize many ideas with photography before…maybe I will start with video when I will be tired of photography!

But sincerely I don't know, i'm used to live at the time and follow my instict about art.

a)) What is the best time in the day for you to work on a project? Is there one, or is it more about the environment -- maybe the right mood?

a)There is not a specific time, I simply like to have time, because I know when I start, but I have no idea when I can finish; sometimes I can spend a lot of hours working on a image, during the day, the night and the day after again without any pause.

Usually I need some day to complete a work, but it’s happened that I needed months, too.

q) What are your artistic influences?...and …generally who or what influences you the most?

a)I was born as painter and i've always studied paintings, so this started to influence me, the colors and materiality of a painting, like Expressionism for example. About the subjects, the Renaissance had a strong influence during my studies. Now I feel to be influenced by the images I see around me, I like advertisings images, billboards, music and movie covers.

q) Who are some of your favourite artists/designers/photographers?

a)When i began to photograph, my first guru was Robert Mapplethorpe because of the lights use and of the human subjects. Currently i can say that my favourite artists are Pierre et Gilles, Erwin Olaf and David LaChapelle, i also love two italians, Matteo Basilè and Giacomo Costa.

q) What is your next project? Exhibition? Collaboration?

a)The current work in progress is a series of avatars of myself, a collection of selfportraits more or less reworked, where the images are strictly connected with my being and where I can see my face change in the time.

After this, my next project will involve other models and it will be about fetish attitudes and looks in Tom of Finland’s style.

q) What are your plans for the future?

a)Sincerely I live from day by day and react to what happens, so my plans can change, if I have them; anyway, in the future I would like to work with medias.

q) Are there some web sites that You would like to recomend? Artists, art communities, xxx,...!?

a)I can share my favourite artists homepages:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pierre-et-Gilles/60959875180

http://www.lachapellestudio.com/

http://www.aes-group.org/default.asp

http://www.erwinolaf.com/

http://www.giacomocosta.com/

http://www.matteobasile.com/newsite/

http://www.mapplethorpe.org/

q) What sort of music do you listen to?

a)Music is very important for me, I always listen to music, especially working on pictures; I love electronic, alternative and experimental music…I think is the same as for art: I feel attracted by new stuff, by the researches, by the experiments to find something new, fresh and on the same wave of our contemporary time.

q) Do you collect anything? If so what?

a)Yes, I collect music of course; I have a very big collection of Björk’s material and a lot of cd and lp from other artists. When I was young I collected sugar sachets and leaves.

q) What do you do for fun?

a)Hey, this is a personale question!

Anyway, I like to spend time with my friends of course, but I also love to be alone, maybe in the nature, to woods or lakes with my camera and mp3 player. I like to watch movies and to travel.

And usually i have fun watching people in the metro.

q) Any advice you can pass onto aspiring artists/designers?

a)I don’t think to be yet in the position to give advices!

Right now I can say to experiment and test many things to find the right ones and don’t be shy to show what one really thinks.

q) Your contacts…

a)You can find everything on www.etiennezerah.com, also my Facebook account and the qualified galeries.

Interview with Sean Lyman

2011-12-06T05:15:00.000-08:00

q)Please tell us your name and where you practice.

a)My Name is Sean Lyman. I live and work in Springfield, Missouri.

q) Why do you make art?

a)I make drawings as a way to communicate… I see the drawings as a form of language that I am unable to otherwise speak. I have been drawing since I was a child. When I was young, my brother and I use to get a magazine called ZOO Books. For a while we each got to pick a picture and our Mother would draw them for us. Eventually, she started to make me draw my own… I just remember that I wanted mine to look as good as her drawing was. This was an important realization for me as I look back, whether I knew it or not, I was being critical of what I was making. I wanted it to have value/meaning.

q) How do you work ?

a)I work from both photographs I take and from images I find. As I have continued working I am finding these images to be more of a support and less of what the drawing actually becomes.

q) What´s your background?

a)I got my BFA at Wichita State University and my MFA at the University of Kansas. Currently I am a Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing at Missouri State University.

q) What role does the artist have in society?

a)I feel that the artist has a responsibility to be honest when most in that society will not. The honesty does not need be earth shattering or prophetic… it can be but it also can be perverse and degenerate. I think that is up to the individual.

q) What was a seminal experience for you ?

a)Last year I had a show at NICE/NICE Exhibition Space in Hannover, Germany. I was able to go over for the opening. It was really interesting to me to see the type response I got about the work. It was the first time I had been to Europe and was really unsure how the work would go over. I was excited to see that people responded to it.

q) Has your practice changed over time ?

a)To an extent yes, I focus more now on only using imagery that I know will eventually only be a supportive tool. In that I mean the drawing will end up being something entirely different than explicitly a drawing of the photo.

q) What art do you most identify with ?

a)Subversive types of art… but also at the same time I have spent a lot of time recently re-finding Dutch Still-Life painting. There is something magical about that work.

q) What´s your strongest memory of your childhood ?

a)(see second Question)

q) What themes do you pursue ?

a)Identity, culture, opposites, masculinity and femininity, vanity, perversion, and social constructs.

q) Describe a real life experience that inspired you.

a)Ten years ago I was in a wheelchair for two months… it was the first time I was something other than “normal” I was able to experience the ugliness that people are able to possess without actively knowing that they/we are doing it. I go back to this experience often as a moment of clarity. I know that now the way I perceive this time is now the way I want to remember it… it too is a construct. These types of constructs influence me daily.

q) What´s your most embarrassing moment ?

a)Shit, I think it would depend on who you asked… there is not just one coming to mind.

q) What jobs have you done other than being an artist ?

a)I had a lot of odd jobs before I came to work at the University. I waited tables, worked at a golf shop, landscaped, sales person, cook, framer at a frame shop… just to think of a few.

q) What responses have you had to your work ?

a)Generally people respond well, they want to know why the people have bags/masks on their heads. I also have people think that the drawings are creepy… which I enjoy, makes me smile.

Interview with Crin

2011-12-02T02:22:00.000-08:00

q) Well, first of all please tell us a little about yourself.

a)Hi, my name is Crin. I'm an itlian artist but I currently work and

live in Berlin.

q)How would you describe your work?

a)Tangle!

q) Did somebody encourage you to become an artist?

a)Not actually, art is a passion that I always had since I can remember. However, my family never hindered me

q)What is your favorite medium?

a)I principally use acrylic colors and markers and often I add some spray.

I paint always on canvas or heavy paper, but lately I´m doing a series of works on cardboard, and I like it as material. Mostly because of the contrast that it comes out between the material itself and my typically plain colors

q) Generally speaking, where do your ideas come from?

a)Normally I get inspired from everything that sourrounds me, I actually chose this city cause I thought that it could give me a lot, visually speaking too.

At the moment I'm working on a project that is growing and developing day by day and it has started just by looking at some balls of wool that I found at home. I began drawing them in a very simple way till I created new and always different concepts that I ' m still processing, I'm very courious about what comes next. I can say that lately my ideas come from these balls of wool.

q) How long does it take to complete a piece?

a)It depends on the size and on the complexity of the work. It could take from a day to a week, but not for longer otherweise I get bored.

q) Who are your favorite artists…and who are some artists you are currently looking/listening to?

a)I follow the street art scene, I could mention the most famous like Roa, Blu,Daim, Os Gemeos, they are the first that pop up in my mind, but I could enumerate many more that I constantly look at. But part of me is still attached to the surrealist trend of Dalí, Magritte, Ernst and Miró, their world has always charmed me.

q) Are you represented by a gallery? Do you have any upcoming exhibits?

a)At the moment I 'm not represented by any gallery, but some of my works are travelling around some european cities with the urban arts award ARTAQ. The exhibit in Paris just closed and the next will be in Bruxelles in December.

q) Do you have any 'studio rituals'? As in, do you listen to certain types of music while working? What helps to get you in the mood for working?

a)I listen to a lot of music while I'm working, mostly electronic, but it depends on my mood. Sometimes I listen to history or science documentaries. Other days silence is better instead.

q) What is your favorite a) taste, b) sound, c) sight, d) smell, and e) tactile sensation?

a)Quick answer, Salty, ,colors, wet paint, feathers,

q) Do you have goals that you are trying to reach as an artist, what is your 'drive'? What would you like to accomplish in your 'profession'?

a)I haven't a precise goal, but I'd like to reach as many people as possible through my works, and I'd like to spread them everywhere.

q) When have you started using the internet and what role does this form of communication play for you, personally, for your art, and for your business?

a)I think I started using internet since I got the chance, it always got me in. I belive it is a great way to spread your own ideas, your knowledge and, in my case, your works. Internet is a good platform for cultural, social and entertaining share. And it is also important to keep in contact with the other people. Regarding my art, the web has surely given me a big shot to make myself known and to meet people. Right now, I couldn't do without it and I feel very lucky to live in this era of digital revolution.

q) What do you obsess over?

a)I don't think to have any obsession.

q) Do you have prefered working hours? Do you pay attention to the time of the day or maybe specific lighting?

a)I'm more concentrated from the evening till late at night. I wake up pretty late, so I spend the first hours doing my ordinary stuff and then I commit myself to my work for the rest of the day. I'd rather stay without any schedule and limits, I do what feel to do.

q) Do you do commissioned works?

a)Yes, it often happens that I work on commission and it's not something that I really like, but it brings money to which you can't say no.

q) Any tips for emerging artists?

a)Insist und never give up! Truly believe in what you do, no matter all the problems you may have. It is a tip that I give also to myself, being an emerging artist.

q)…Your contacts

a)I'm full of contacts, I'll give you the most important: my website www.crinart.com and the blog http://crin-art.blogspot.com/ , there you can find more links to the other pages.

Interview with Brian McDonald

2011-11-15T04:08:00.000-08:00

q)Please tell us your name and where you practice.

a) Brian McDonald. I live and work in the Mission District of San Francisco, CA, USA.

q) Why do you make art?

a)It's a way for me to find beauty, order, truth, and inspiration in the chaos that surrounds me.

q) How do you work?

a)I am a mixed media artist. I use acrylic paint, collage, and screen-print. I work intuitively and let each piece tell me what it has to say. I usually work on about 20 pieces at a time. Most of the time my studio is a big mess.

q) What´s your background?

a)I got a D in 7th grade art class and didn't make art again till I was 32. That's when I took my first painting class and was instantly hooked.

q) What role does the artist have in society?

a)I see the artist as a connection to the the divine. When I experience music, film, painting, literature that resonate with me I feel a connection to the artist that created it, to my soul, and to a higher being.

q) What was a seminal experience for you?

a)Seeing a Robert Rauschenberg combine at SFMOMA about 12 years ago. It looked like he just threw a bunch of shit together with the intention of making something ugly. It really made me mad! I went home that day and tried to make the ugliest painting I could. That experience gave me permission to create my own personal sense of beauty - flawed and failed from the ideal yet beautiful and poetic in its own way.

q) Has your practice changed over time?

a)I started out working only with paint. Then I added collage for texture. Slowly, the collaged elements worked their way to the surface.

q) What art do you most identify with?

a)My own.

q) What´s your strongest memory of your childhood?

a)Getting off the school bus as a kid and a bee landed on me. I was terrified and ran all the way home crying for my mom to get the bee off me. When I got home, the bee was gone and my mom asked why I didn't just flick it off. She said to me, “Don't bee scared.”

q) What themes do you pursue?

a)Consumer anxiety is a dominant theme in my work right now.

q) What´s your most embarrassing moment?

a)Being a teenager.

q) What jobs have you done other than being an artist?

a)Former pharmacist, fig farmer, fake fur fluffer, fast food fish fryer, firefighter, forensic forecaster, furniture finisher, foundry foreman, FBI frontman, freelance fashion photographer, foreign film financier.

q) What responses have you had to your work?

a)I love it when people appreciate the humor in my work and laugh.

q) What do you dislike about the artworld?

a)They won't let me into their crappy club for jerks.

q) What research do you do?

a)I am more of a collector than a researcher. I constantly collect things like junk mail, art books, ideas, music, quotes and phrases, paper, images, scraps of wood, etc. to incorporate into my work.

q) What is your dream project?

a)I have a recurring dream that I am a contestant on America's Next Top Model. I am the only guy on the show and although I participate in all the challenges and photo shoots, I cannot win the competition nor can I be voted off the show. It's the best of both worlds.

q) What´s the best piece of advice you have been given?

a)You don’t have to floss all your teeth, only the ones you want to keep.

q) What couldn't you do without?

a)Pornography.

q) What makes you angry?

a)Expired gift cards.

q) What is your worst quality?

a)Impatience. Or indecisiveness.

q) Dogs or Cats?

a)I love it when it's raining cats and dogs. I also love it when it's raining men.

q) Making art is a lot like being on lsd. Know what I mean?

a)I think making art is more like being on PCP as I often experience hallucinations, euphoria, paranoia, suicidal impulses, and aggressive behavior at the studio.

q) What does “ copy” mean to you?

a)Command-C.

q) What´s your favorite cuss word?

a)Fuck.

Interview with Paul Matthews

2011-10-27T05:57:00.000-07:00

q)Please tell us your name and where you practice.

a)My name is Paul Matthews. I’m from Wales in the U.K though now live in Japan.

q) Why do you make art?

a)Because I wasn’t very good at maths in school.

q) How do you work?

a)Draw a face in my sketch book, sometimes colour it in with pencil crayons. Scan it into my computer and play with it on Photoshop until I think it looks nice.

q) What´s your background?

a)I started to draw lots in my early teens. Did a 2 year fine art course in college when I was 16 then I went to University when I was 18 to do a BA(hons) Fine Art… I got a 2-1. My dissertation was a bit shit.

q) What role does the artist have in society?

a)Nobody likes blank walls.

q) What was a seminal experience for you?

a)Sitting in the back of my parents’ car when I was a kid, I remember watching my older brother draw over a pencil drawing with a pen.

q) Has your practice changed over time?

a)It has simplified.

q) What art do you most identify with?

a)I’m a sucker for anything with a funny face.

q) What´s your strongest memory of your childhood?

a)Strongest? I think I have lot’s on similar levels.

a)Going to Eurodisney for my 10^th birthday is a good memory. Putting a clothes peg on my cats’ ear is a bad memory. I still feel bad about it now, I have been nice to animals ever since.

q) What themes do you pursue?

a)People, they’re fascinating.

q) Describe a real life experience that inspired you.

a)Working in an office, realised it wasn’t for me.

q) What´s your most embarrassing moment?

a)I was on a dance floor in a club. I thought I saw a lone flip flop on the floor. I started scraping it towards me and I stamped on it. I then looked up to see a girl screaming at me with her angry boyfriend. The flip flop was not alone. I gave her my half-drunk bottle of beer and all was forgotten.

q) What jobs have you done other than being an artist?

a)I worked in an office for a year. I’m currently an English teacher in Japan, as well as making art.

q) What responses have you had to your work?

a)Quite positive so far, perhaps the people with the negative feedback can’t be bothered to waste their time in telling me. Maybe they will after this…

q) What do you dislike about the art world?

a)I was going to say that it is controlled by money, though what isn’t? And I probably wouldn’t say that if I had more money.

q) What research do you do?

a)I’m quite observant when looking at people, bit of a hobby/habit.

q) What is your dream project?

a)I just want my art to keep evolving and hopefully get seen by more people.

q) What´s the best piece of advice you have been given?

a)Go with the flow.

q) What couldn’t you do without?

a)My ears.

q) What makes you angry?

a)Bullying.

q) What is your worst quality?

a)Speaking before I’ve finished thinking. Though I think I may be paranoid.

q) Dogs or Cats?

a)¾ cat ¼ dog, I’m a big fan of animals.

q) Making art is a lot like being on lsd. Know what I mean?

a)Some paintings I’ve seen on Christmas cards in Japan look like they may have a hint of LSD about them.

q) What does “copy” mean to you?

a)Depends in what sense, if I’m photocopying worksheets for my students then it’s to reproduce. If someone is copying someone else’s work/art/music then it’s taking the piss. Unless they copy something but make it better.

q) What´s your favorite cuss word?

a)A gentleman never tells.

Interview with Tamás Lakos

2011-10-11T02:59:00.000-07:00

q) Please tell us your name and where you practice.

a)My name is Tamás Lakos, i come from Budapest.
Im in my final year at the uni (MOME) study media design, graphic design.

q) Why do you make art?

a)I do make art because it makes me feel much better and to draw out my impressions.
I'd always been doing this since i remember.

q) How do you work ?

a)I dont really like to work alone but sometimes yes.
Have some groups i do exhibitions with, sometimes, that could be inspirative.
Recently i do zines, skatchbooks, i love the process.
Furthermore Im preparing my final work at school.

q) What´s your background?

a)Group of seagulls are fighting with a cat.
I was born in a artist family but they didnt want me to be artist. Now i understand, but its good like this.

q) What role does the artist have in society?

a)There are a lot of different roles. You do always reflect what is around you subconsciously or consciously, in your way.

q) What was a seminal experience for you ?

a)I dont really remember for the very firs but sure all's came from my parents, probably my fathers paintings from his young age, in my grandparents home and a friends drawings in high school.

q) Has your practice changed over time ?

a)Sure. Its thrilling always. It'd be nice to document this transformation.

q) What art do you most identify with ?

a)I dont know, i guess my art.

q) What´s your strongest memory of your childhood ?

a)I have some nice memories fishing with my father at the lake or playing in the sand with some plastic toys, cars, GIjoes in my grandfather little garden between the vine stocks.

q) What themes do you pursue ?

a)I like to put animals in human's chair and weird stories.

q) Describe a real life experience that inspired you.

a)Two seagulls is steping on a car top, fighting over a dead pigeon body, down on the ground are some cats watching.
I felt like loosing human being. It was crazy thrilling.

q) What´s your most embarrassing moment ?

a)when i loose control.

q) What jobs have you done other than being an artist ?

a)Doing art has never been a job for me. I had many different design jobs, especially with architectures. (and when i was younger some garden building and ice cream seller job)

q) What responses have you had to your work ?

a)There are responses all the field of life especially to yourself.

q) What do you dislike about the artworld ?

a)Im not really in artworld, i dont have the bad experiences yet.
I behave as a good worker.

q) What research do you do ?

a)Collecting information every time about what you do. It is very important and instructive.

q) What is your dream project?

a) I have more, one of them is to paint a huge mural.

q) What´s the best piece of advice you have been given ?

a)Dont be nervous has always been given.

q) What couldn’t you do without?

a)I could do i guess.

q) What makes you angry?

a)There are very few things can make me angry. Anyway I try not to be.

q) What is your worst quality?

a)When i loose weight.

q) Dogs or Cats ?

a)dog

q) Making art is a lot like being on lsd. Know what I mean ?

a)i dont.

q) What does “ copy” mean to you ?

a)Its good to copy sometimes to create something new after.

q) What´s your favorite cuss word ?

a)dont have favorite.

Interview with Rop van Mierlo

2011-07-29T01:43:00.000-07:00

q)Who are you? Where are you from and where do you live now?

a)My name is Rop van Mierlo. I'm born in Gemert a little village in the south of Holland. I live in Amsterdam.

q)What is it that you do? What media do you use?

a)I mostly work in graphic design, draw a lot, experiment with animation and recently made a picture book called Wild Animals. I work a lot with paper, water and ink.

q)What do you think sets your work apart?

a)At first I try to make work that I would like to see, that I think is important and work that makes me happy, feel good or whatever. Besides that I use a lot of techniques that I can't fully control.

q)How long have you been showing your work for? Did you have a “big break?”

a)I've been showing my work for a few years now but since I self-published Wild Animals last October 2011 I appear on blogs and get asked to do interviews.

q)What are some things that have inspired you?

a)A lot of my work is influenced by my time at primary school. As a kid I went to a Steiner School, 'Vrije school' as we say in dutch, I still use a lot of the techniques we got taught back then but now I use them in a more free and experimental way.

q)What have you been working on recently?

a)Daphna Laurens asked me to give my own interpretation on their 'Tafelstukken', a series of five light objects that they designed. You can find them on their website: www.daphnaisaacs.nl

q)Do you listen to music while you create your work? If so, would you give some examples?

a)I listen a lot to the music they play at dublab.com or colette.fr.

q)Do you do work in any other media? Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work?

a)Nope.

q)What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?

a)Be gentle and don't loose your watch.

q)Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of your work that you can mention?

a)Seek Merry Hell

q)Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

a)www.ropvanmierlo.nl

www.wild-animals.nl

www.vimeo.com/user734427

www.daphnaisaacs.nl

Rop van Mierlo

Giraffen / Olifanten / Krokodillen

Zamenhofstraat 150 (studio 302)

1022 AG Amsterdam

www.wilde-dieren.nl

www.ropvanmierlo.nl

Interview with Berni Stephanus

2011-06-28T15:04:00.000-07:00

q)Please tell us your name and where you practice.

a)Berni Stephanus, I work in 2 places : Geneva and Southern Burgundy where we have a residence.

q) Why do you make art?

a)It became clear to me when I started painting when I was 15: It was my destiny.

q) How do you work ?

a)I make collages every day, if I can’t, I just play with bits of paper that I leave on my desk.

q) What´s your background?

a)I learned painting with private teachers, later I went to art school and still later I made a degree in history of art.

q) What role does the artist have in society?

a)Mostly to entertain. Rarely to awaken.

q) What was a seminal experience for you ?

a)That I was able to copy a Manet without any training. This was my first painting.

q) Has your practice changed over time ?

a)Yes a lot. From abstraction I often came back to realism in order to be understood.

q) What art do you most identify with ?

a)Baroque.

q) What´s your strongest memory of your childhood ?

a)The brutality and the mockeries of the women in a Christian home in Bavaria, where I stayed for 6 months without any visit from my parents. I didn’t know that my mother was Jewish.

q) What themes do you pursue ?

a)Suffering, human madness, strange situations. Irony.

q) Describe a real life experience that inspired you.

a)My recent kidney operation. I made some collages in hospital with many skulls.

q) What´s your most embarrassing moment ?

a)In art? None. In my life: when I understand that I was completely wrong.

q) What jobs have you done other than being an artist ?

a)Teacher: art, history of art, German, French, speed reading etc. Translator.

q) What responses have you had to your work ?

a)That I had to concentrate on what is my strength: collage. I therefore decided to leave painting.

q) What do you dislike about the artworld ?

a)Dislike is too strong. It’s the commedia dell’arte. I never did want to play a part in it. I won’t bow before power or money. My main word is: (total) freedom.

q) What research do you do ?

a)I write on my collages. It started with morning papers.

q) What is your dream project?

a)To be able to work as long as possible.

q) What´s the best piece of advice you have been given ?

a)My father used to tell me that one has to concentrate on one thing.

q) What couldn’t you do without?

a)Collage

q) What makes you angry?

a)Stupidity.

q) What is your worst quality?

a)Being full of myself.

q) Dogs or Cats ?

a)Dogs.

q) Making art is a lot like being on lsd. Know what I mean ?

a)Not quite, because lsd leads to self-disintegration whereas art leads to self-construction.

q) What does “ copy” mean to you ?

a)Nothing. I never copy, even not myself. But I hijack parts of paintings, sculpture and photos.

q) What´s your favorite cuss word ?

a)merde

Interview with Peter Adamyan

2011-06-01T03:43:00.000-07:00

q)Who are you? Where are you from and where do you live now?

a)My name is Peter Adamyan, I?m currently 23 years old, grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles and am currently living in the San Francisco Bay area.

q)What is it that you do? What media do you use?

a)I consider myself an oil painter above all else. I usually work with oil and sometimes acrylic on cut out and layered pieces of wood.

q)What do you think sets your work apart?

a)To find the best answer for that you?d have to ask someone who is a fan of my work, but if I?d have to answer I guess it would be the three dimensional relief effect I create with the layers of wood. As for content it would be my willingness to use what some may consider offensive content. I also expect the viewer to think a little when looking at my work, and that sets me apart from anyone that creates anything in this society if they expect to achieve a wide audience.

q)How long have you been showing your work for? Did you have a ?big break??

a)For about four years now. Haven?t had a big break yet.

q)What are some things that have inspired you?

a)Everything from the cartoons I grew up with to the authors I read now as an adult. I?m hugely inspired by music, film and anything that comes from our popular culture. I tend to use those to promote my beliefs in science, reason and my beliefs against superstitions like religion. As for artists I?m highly inspired by the great masters and the traditional low brow artists such as Robert Williams, R. Crumb, S. Clay Wilson and the like.

q)What have you been working on recently?

a)I’m working on various pieces for some upcoming group shows. I?ve generally just been trying to get back into the groove of things after my recent solo show at Lopo Gallery.

q)Do you listen to music while you create your work? If so, would you give some examples?

a)I listen to music, or watch movies or TV shows. I listen to a lot of old American folk and blues music, gospel music, shoegaze, a lot of stuff really, from Leonard Cohen and Karen Dalton to Daniel Johnston and Jandek, I?d rather not get too into it or this question would take up the whole interview.

q)Do you do work in any other media? Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work?

a)Not currently, don?t have the time, I?ve been experimenting with block printing and will hopefully have some block prints out sooner rather then later.

q)What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?

a)Push yourself.

q)Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of your work that you can mention?

a)I’m always showing in a group show somewhere best to follow me on line to keep up to date.

q)Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

a)Either at my website www.peteradamyan.com or if you want to keep up to date on everything, add me on facebook.

Interview with Matt Rota

2011-04-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

q)Who are you? Where are you from and where do you live now?

a)I’m Matt Rota, I grew up in the countryside of upstate New York, on Lake Ontario in a small town called Sterling.

Now I live in Brooklyn New York.

q)What is it that you do? What media do you use?

a)I’m An Illustrator for Magazines, comics and other print media. I paint with watercolor, draw with pencil and ink, and sometimes color my drawings with Photoshop.

q)What do you think sets your work apart?

a)I’m not sure my work is set apart (though I’d like to think it is sometimes) what sets it apart may be for others to decide. If I had to say anything I would say the straightforward way in which I deal with difficult subject matters such as war, poverty, human suffering. I tend to have intense emotional responses to these subjects and create work leaden with a heavy mood. My work is not very conceptual, it is pretty straight forward, so I have a very straightforward, sometimes deadpan way of dealing with tragic issues.

q)How long have you been showing your work for? Did you have a “big break?”

a)I have been pretty active since about 2006. The first time I was published in the NY times op Ed section I felt like things were starting to happen, people were starting to respond to my work. Don’t know if ever had a big break, mostly a lot of little steps. Still taking little steps. This past December when I won a silver medal from the Society of illustrators for the work I did on the documentary The Silent Truth felt like a significant step. I validated a lot of work that I had been doing that I felt was going unnoticed.

q)What are some things that have inspired you?

a)I get my biggest day-to-day inspiration from surfing the web, looking for bizarre photos that make me realize what a strange place this world is. Goggle image search any subject, and you’ll find the strangest stuff. I was always a fan of post World War One German expressionism Like Dix, Grosz, Ernst; also Goya’s Black paintings, and Horrors of War for how cynical, and sinister the work was. Movies have a big impact on me. I’m a big fan of old noir films like Sunset Blvd. The Third Man, Kiss Me Deadly, Story of a Love Affair, Touch of Evil, German stuff like Dr Caligari, M, Nosferatu, and other silents, Passion of Joan of Arc, Man with the Moving Camera. Italian stuff from Di Sica, Felini, Passolini, Antonioni other stuff from that time period, Goddard, Hitchcock, Bergman, etc, etc. The Shining was always a big influence too. And books, more than I can name. I read more books than movies I watch or artists I look at and if I get started listing I won’t stop, and this list is already a little self indulgent, but, here’s a few anyway, Coetzee, Paul Bowles, Raymond Carver, Bulgakov, Graham Greene, Bellow, and on and on and on… Some Contemporary artists that have been making a big impact on me are William Kentridge, Justin Mortimer, Adrian Ghenie, Aron Wiesenfeld, Inka Essenhigh, Andrew Hem, Sam Weber, Tomer Hanuka, Josh Cochran, Henery Darger, and comics by artists Dan Clowes, Gipi, Fredric Coche, Moebius, Lorenzo Mattotti, Carol Swain, Jason, John Pham, and Brecht Evens. I could go on, but I should really stop now.

q)What have you been working on recently?

a)I do the occasional Op Ed piece, recently about all the uprising and war in the middle east, And other illustrations for print, I’m finishing up drawing a comic with writer Sean T. Collins, coloring a comic for a friend Owen Brozman, called Nature of the Beast, Working on several pieces that will be in group shows throughout the year, and teaching at the School of Visual Arts, and at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

q)Do you listen to music while you create your work? If so, would you give some examples?

a)Yes, lots. I’m listening to the new low album now, called C’mon. Bill Callahan has been on repeat a lot, his new album apocalypse is really good. Also enjoying the new dirty beaches album. Other favorites include Yann Tierson, Kurt Vile, Dept. of Eagles, Beirut, Leonard Cohen, Deerhunter, and Atlas Sound, Mount Eerie, Lambchop, Pocahaunted, the Vibes. That’s a fairly evolving list that rotates through 100’s of bands, these are just recent interests.

q)Do you do work in any other media? Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work?

a)I listed a couple about, such as coloring a graphic novel. The Documentary I mentioned, the Silent Truth, I collaborated with an animator, I recently work on some story boards for the forthcoming movie A Late Quartet. These are all areas where I am collaborating, so the work is not solely my own.

q)What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?

a)Make friends with other people that show their work, especially people whose work you like. Find galleries that show work that you can relate too, and think you fit in with. Start building a relationship with people who work in and show in galleries that you would like to work with. Working in the art world is all about being apart of a community and building lasting relationships with like-minded people.

q)Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of your work that you can mention?

a)I am in a couple of group shows later in the year. Primarily a show called Dark Water, in LA in the Copro gallery, curated by Martin Wittfooth. I don’t want to say too much about it now, but a lot of artists I admire will be in the show, there will be a web site up soon with info. Also a show curated by Monte Beauchamp themed around the folk creature the Krampus. Both of these should be pretty interesting.

q)Where can people see more of your work on the Internet?

a)Mattrotasart.com

Mattrotasartnews.blogspot.com

Google image search.

Interview with Mariel Clayton

2011-04-20T15:35:00.000-07:00

q)Who are you? Where are you from and where do you live now?

a)I am originally from South Africa, but now I live just outside of Toronto, Canada. I work as a travel agent and do this as my hobby.

q)What is it that you do? What media do you use?

a)I take Barbie dolls and props and set them up in Dioramas and then photograph them. My medium is really just dolls!

q)What do you think sets your work apart?

a)What sets my work apart is, unlike other doll photographers my work is a lot more detailed - and the scenery/backdrops etc are a lot more involved. I feel that my photography encourages more story-telling, and really encourages the viewer to investigate what is going on.

q)How long have you been showing your work for? Did you have a “big break?”

a)I have been taking these pictures for the last 2 years and putting them up on my Flickr webpage - but I only officially started 'showing' my work 2 months ago at the 5 Pieces Gallery in Switzerland. I don't know if this is my 'big break' yet or not - it's too early to tell.

q)What are some things that have inspired you?

a)I am inspired a lot by current events recently, especially what had been happening in Japan. Usually I take my inspiration just from the things that are around me, music, paper patterns, people etc. My biggest inspiration would have to be the Cartoonist/Illustrator Carl Giles - an English War Cartoonist who worked in a one-panel format and absolutely filled every corner with details and stories. He has taught me to pay attention to everything in the frame, the main focal point, and all the minor ones as well.

q)What have you been working on recently?

a)My most recent set is called 'Twenty-Five Rooms' - I am working in a Square format with a limited amount of space to try and approach story-telling in a different way. I am trying to recreate all the facets of the human, and our personal experiences.

q)Do you listen to music while you create your work? If so, would you give some examples?

a)Sometimes - I listen to a really wide variety, but I enjoy Lily Allen, the Beatles, Arcade Fire, most recently I've been listening to the musical score from 'Sherlock Holmes' which I really enjoy!

q)Do you do work in any other media? Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work?

a)I do paint a little, but I haven't had much time recently. My favourite artistic medium is pen and ink - I really enjoy doing those.

q)What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?

a)I've only just begun to show my work, so I'm probably not the best person to be giving advice!

q)Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of your work that you can mention?

a)At the moment, I have an online 'exhibition' at the 5 Pieces Gallery.

q)Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

a)My personal website is - www.thephotographymarielclayton.com

or - http://www.5piecesgallery.com/category/mariel-clayton

Interview with Alexey Luka

2011-03-24T14:23:00.000-07:00

q)Who are you? Where are you from and
where do you live now?

a)Hello. my name is Alexey Luka. I live and
work in Moscow, Russia.

q)What is it that you do? What media do you use?

a)I make a lot of things. I started as a graffiti
writer and then

i began to mix different types of media and work in
different directions.

 Mostly i prefer making characters and mix them
with surreal forms.
I work with different media, my favourites
are spray cans,
acrylic paint and lots of paper for collages.



q)What do you think sets your work apart?

a)I think its a mix of characters
and abstract forms.


q)How long have you been showing
your work for?
Did you have a “big break?”

a)Long time ago i began painting on
the street,
at that time it was the only one way to show
my work.
Later i started sharing my work through
different internet blogs.
Now vie got my web site and flickr.
Also you can find  my work on the
streets of moscow
and sometimes in group shows in galleries.


q)What are some things that have
 inspired you?

a)different situations in my life.


q)What have you been working
on recently?

a)Now i am working on
2 exhibitions,
a big series of collages
and a new zine.


q)Do you listen to music while
you create your work?
If so, would you give some examples?

a)Yes sometimes .I prefer Early
80s Synthpop.


q)Do you do work in any
other media?
Other projects not necessarily
related to your
main body of work?

a)When i have time  - I do
photographs.


q)What advice do you have for artists
looking to show their work?

a)Actually I think it is better not
to think about the ways
of showing you work.

Show what is inside through
your work,
make it interesting and you will
get there.

q)Do you have any upcoming
exhibitions of your work
that you can mention?

a)There is one coming up in June,
but we don't
know the exact dates yet.


q)Where can people see more of your
work on the internet?

a)my flickr www.flickr.com/photos/alexey_luka
my collaborations work with nootk
www.mainstreamers.org

plus ive just launched my personal website,

with big updates coming soon  
www.alexeyluka.com

Interview with Nice Art

2011-03-02T14:19:00.000-08:00

q)Who are you? Where are you from and where do you live now?

a)I am from Nice Art, a street art crew based near Paris. I am from Rome but I leave in France, near Paris.

q)What is it that you do? What media do you use?

a)I am a stencil maker (pochoiriste) and I am using walls in the street.

q)What do you think sets your work apart?

a)Our work is very colourful. We have started depicting animals and we are now doing portraiture (writers, singers, movie stars, etc)

q)How long have you been showing your work for? Did you have a “big break?”

a)We have been showing our work for more than 25 years and we had a “big break” from 1992 to 2000-01 approximately. This was partly due to new environmental concerns in relation with the destructing effect of spray can upon the ozone layer. We had to make sure that our work would not have bad consequences on our environment.

q)What are some things that have inspired you?

a)The work of Ernest Pignon-Ernest

The work of Alechinsky

q)What have you been working on recently?

a)I recently painted a big wall (7m X 9m) with two graffiti makers. I also started making stencil on LP records.

q)Do you listen to music while you create your work? If so, would you give some examples?

a)Sometimes. Very different musics… Difficult to extract a particular style as it depends on the mood.

q)Do you do work in any other media? Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work?

a)I also create stickers, posters, photo pictures, paintings, … I am also engaging in playing theatre on stage as an amateur actress.

q)What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?

a)Stay as much as possible in the streets and use every opportunity to create on the walls.

q)Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of your work that you can mention?

a)A few:

Art cité, in Fontenay-sous-Bois, upcoming in September 2011

Fleurs sur le béton, Bagneux, March-May 2011

q)Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

a)www.nice-art.net

http://www.flickr.com/photos/la-fusee/

Interview with Karl Backman

2011-01-19T07:34:00.000-08:00

q)Who are you? Where are you from and where do you live now?

a)Karl: I'm Karl Backman, from Umeå Punk City in Västerbotten, Sweden.

q)What is it that you do? What media do you use?

a)Karl: When I paint I mainly use acrylics, but sometimes oil, almost always on canvas. And I do some screen prints too, and there's a xerox art project with Jessica in it's early state too. And my music of course. I play guitar. Electric guitar.

q)What do you think sets your work apart?

a)Karl: My use of colour, my themes and my independence. I like images that are both archetypical and unique.

q)How long have you been showing your work for? Did you have a “big break?”

a)Karl: Eight or nine years only, with the paintings, but I've been on stage with punk bands since the very early 80's, and my music related art work was on record sleeves, posters, t-shirts and in fanzines long before I started exhibiting my paintings. I've never had a big break, just a steadily growing interest in what I do, I guess.

q)What are some things that have inspired you?

a)Karl: My work is inspired by everything from hardcore porn to official government reports. People I interact with, or colours and shapes in various dead objects. My girlfriend and long gone cold war era intelligence officers. Lust and paranoia. Sex and violence. Life and death.

q)What have you been working on recently?

a)Karl: Different stuff. In September 2010 I visited the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the ghost town of Pripyat inside the exclusion zone, and my next theme will be centred around that, so I'm starting to do sketches for those paintings now. It's a very strange and interesting experience, actually being there in front of Reactor 4 and walking around in Pripyat among all the discarded radioactive gasmasks and all the dusty possesions people had to leave behind when they were evacuated. Some of my photos from this trip are up on my Facebook and MySpace pages by the way. Apart from that I'm also working on my upcoming Zurich exhibition series, which is very different in some ways, though both are exploring a simular topic. I think gasmasks are such an iconic thing to people because it signals both life and death, and life and death is what the work I'm doing for Zurich is about too, but with that series I'm juxtapositioning images and ideas connected to life and death that men find both exciting and shameful.

q)Do you listen to music while you create your work? If so, would you give some examples?

a)Karl: Yes, I listen to music all the time. Mainly UK punk from the late 70's and the early 80's. It's hard to pick a handful when there's 100s of bands on 1000s of vinyl records. Mau Maus, Sex Pistols, Subhumans, Barbed Wire, 4-Skins, Riot Squad, Damned, Disorder, Oppressed, Conflict, Icons of Filth, Exploited. Outside of punk I like Diamanda Galás, Motorhead and Chuck Berry.

q)Do you do work in any other media? Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work?

a)Karl: Well, I write songs and play guitar in two punk bands; AC4 and The Vectors. Both bands have toured Europe several times, and released a lot of records, and there are new ones coming out this year. With AC4 we're touring Australia in April, and we're probably gonna do another European tour later this year too. Check us out if you're into fast hardcore punk, with no emo, no metal, no ska and no pop. I like purity and loyalty in music as in everything else.

q)What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?

a)Karl: Start your own gallery. We did that in 2005, and it's always great to feel that you in some small way are taking control of your own life, rather than waiting for someone else to do things for you. You're free to do what you want. I also think a lot of artists need to step back and look at their art, and ask themselves if they should exhibit the work at all. Are you creating something that is actually interesting?

q)Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of your work that you can mention?

a)Karl: I have a solo exhibition scheduled from July 8th to August 4th 2011 at the Museum Of Porn In Art, in Zurich, Switzerland. I don't yet have the exact dates for the rest of the things this year.

q)Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

a)Karl: Well, there's a lot of places, but my own sites are: karlbackman.co.nr, facebook.com/karlbackman.art and myspace.com/karlbackman

Interview with Daniel Lumbini

2010-12-13T05:01:00.000-08:00

q)Who are you? Where are you from and where do you live now?

a)My name is Daniel Lumbini, and I’m a painter. I’m from a place called Harlow, in Essex, UK.

q)What is it that you do? What media do you use?

a)I like to think I’m striving for something a bit different, and get bored very easily just doing one thing, so like to mix mediums that wouldn’t usually go together – like oil painting and collage, or collage and spray paint. I might spend hours on a painting, but then completely subvert the image in a second by changing the media. I think I’d consider myself as a subversive, if that is such a thing…

q)What do you think sets your work apart?

a)I’m not content to just follow trends and just do my own thing – I think having such a diverse range of influences sets my work apart - so I take influences from traditional painters, as well as contemporary and urban art, and the end result is all of that blended into one. I’d like to think I’ll pioneer a new movement some day - I’m not content to just be another painter.

q)How long have you been showing your work for? Did you have a “big break?”

a)I don’t think I’ve had my “big break” just yet, I’ve only been showing my work for about a year – after taking a ten year hiatus from painting - and people have only just started taking notice of what I’m doing. I’m quite glad though, as it’s allowed me to experiment and grow as an artist, under the radar.

q)What are some things that have inspired you?

a)Travel has inspired me a lot. I’m also fascinated with evolution, abnormality, as well as the media perception of beauty. I’m not interested in painting society’s perception of beauty, but the kind of beautiful accident you get from a random placement of something odd, much the same way nature might give a beautiful girl a big nose, which will in turn make her look quirky instead. I like quirky. I also like artists that stray from the obvious (and quite banal) subjects because they’re pretty: Jenny Saville, for instance, or Bacon and urban artists like Bast and Judith Supine.

q)What have you been working on recently?

a)I’ve been working on a bunch of new studies as well as a print that will be coming out just after Christmas, I think. I’ve also been doing some more traditional portraits, but I also have something quite radical in the pipeline as well…

q)Do you listen to music while you create your work? If so, would you give some examples?

a)When I’m in “the zone”, I will usually listen to the same song on a loop for hours – I find it quite hypnotic. Depending on my mood, I love Brandon Flowers Crossfire at the moment (which I think I’ve worn out), but for fun it would have to be Justice or Daft Punk, or if I’m in a really dark place then Nirvana.

q)Do you do work in any other media? Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work?

a)I don’t consider myself a street artist, but I can use a spraycan as good as the next guy, and love painting as big as I can get, so if I get the chance to do something outside then I will always be up for that. I’ve also started doing some street installation work, and did a wall with Penny recently, who is a well-known stencil artists. While our two styles are a million miles away, I loved the added dimension this gave to the piece. We’re planning some even bigger projects for the new year. The new body of work I’m exploring is going to introduce some very diverse elements into my paintings … things I’ve never even tried before.

q)What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?

a)Just keep going. If your work is good enough, eventually someone will take notice, but you also need to put yourself out there – an audience isn’t just going to come and find you. Do lots of little shows to build confidence in showing your work, go to private views at galleries and meet other artists and collectors, don’t be too precious about your work either - give things away if you have to; people talk and word of mouth is the most important thing when you’re trying to get heard. But, more importantly, if you rest, you rust!

q)Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of your work that you can mention?

a)I have a show on at the moment called In/Human, which is a group show in Chelsea, West London, that I’ve co-curated with Richard Grindy from 2R Art, featuring David Walker, Nick Gentry, Penny, Christopher Moon and Joseph Loughborough. The show runs until December 23^rd, with a Christmas Party and private view on the 16^th of December. I’m also in talks about curating another show (which will feature some new work also), but will be far more contemporary than anything I’ve done so far.

q)Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

a)I’ve just built a new website where my most recent work can be seen: www.dlumbini.com, or via my flickr page which I use more as a blog nowdays: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lumbini/

Interview with Sarah Haug

2010-12-09T13:45:00.000-08:00

q)Who are you? Where are you from and where do you live now?

a)My name is Sarah Haug and I am an artist and illustrator living in Geneva. I was born in Bern, ten years ago I moved my basecamp to Geneva

q)What is it that you do? What media do you use?

a)I am working on musicvisuals and illustrations, personal projects and commissions. I combine drawings, collage, graphic tablet, pens and so on. I like to explore... My animation work is a mix of different techniques too. I try to create appealing esthetics keeping the edginess and lo-fi looks.

q)What do you think sets your work apart?

a)Fun and playfulness, black humor and tenderness together

q)How long have you been showing your work for? Did you have a “big break?”

a)I am seriously illustrating for maybe 4 years now, even though it's what always wanted to do. The big break, I think I am still waiting for it. it's more like many little beaks eventually add up.

q)What are some things that have inspired you?

a)Music, the energy of insubordination, and all kinds of stories, the beauty of strangeness, nature, animals

q)What have you been working on recently?

a)I am working on a new VJing set which will be a big project. Otherwise, some commissions for magazines, self-promotion.

q)Do you listen to music while you create your work? If so, would you give some examples?

a)I love to be an illustrator only for being able to listen to good music all day.!!.. I like mostly rock and experimental music, mostly before 1980. I like bizarre experiments but I surrender to pop also, good rhythmics and a voice.

q)Do you do work in any other media? Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work?

a)My work is a mix, in any case I have to appropriate the media for myself in order to use it, things are connected and nourrish one another.

q)What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?

a)Go for it, learn about how things work and most importantly, about what you want to do, how.

q)Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of your work that you can mention?

a)no but I want to focus on my vjing work and and hopefully make an exhibition with prints in 2011.

q)Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

a)check out www.the-steak.net

Interview with D. Udaiyan

2010-12-04T08:51:00.000-08:00

q)Who are you? Where are you from and where do you live now?

a)I won't bore you or your readers with the obvious pragma-dialectical argumentation theory on where, what and how Udaiyan came to be. That is, there will be no standpoints, premises, or clear formulations into the initial starting conditions, as I truly believe that linguistic constraints are in itself a clamp on the illocutionary act (one might say bordering onto the perlocutionary).

In fact the constraints that I outline above feeds into an inductive argument of which the premises maybe true or not, so I consider this to be a fallacy in itself via the confines of my own self contained argument.

However, I will instead present to you a series of my own rules in regards to the strategic manoeuvring and the (dare I say) heuristical nature of the problem/solution.

I have tried to subdivide the first question into two part or rules.

The first rule of which is:

Rule 1: Udaiyan is an artist of Indian origin.

Whether that makes me an Indian or not is indicative of the nature of whom we are and what we are. This leads onto the question of what defines us and how we are perceived by us and the wider public on a political, economic and philosophical level; which can then feed into some sort of artistic memorandum of understanding.

Rule two: The dilemma of the self referential - self described.

In relation to the self prescribed psychoanalytical layout as described above; and in direct consequence to the question ‘who are you’; we are presented with a dilemma. Now, if one metaphorically stands back and evaluates the problem and infers that this may lead to placemats or signposts of ‘self’, then one can only conclude that the ‘self’ describing oneself is too (how can I say) ‘self referential’. Perhaps one needs an outside entity (maybe an individual, group, census, or party) that has the foresight to describe me and what I do, who I am etc from the perspective of a newly defined artographical lexicon. This would presumably be defined by me or by some like minded grouping? Thus the dilemma: how do we turn this ‘new conjecture’ into a working model or a prototype that can best describe what I do, who I am etc, without referring to my own preconditions or initial states?

The second part (where are you from and where do you live now) has many socio-economic and philosophical implications depending on your perspective. In fact (probably more importantly) there are the political implications that I am only just beginning to discover as I answer the question. To place me in a specific context may upset the balance of what you (or your readers) think my art is and what it is about. I consider myself as an internationalist and my art as a form of visual interlingua. As it happens, on the surface I am living in Cambridge in England - and do travel quite extensively. So the word ‘live’ presents to me an almost a non-vitalistic mechanistic standpoint on how and what life is and where that may leads us. Then again, just thinking about the question a bit more, I am also being sidetracked (influenced?) at the moment by Gödelian arguments and the implications of the incompleteness theorems concerning my own artistic axioms.

q)What is it that you do? What media do you use?

a)My main role is a facilitator between the philosophical works of Deleuze and Guattari, semiotic theory, the bridge between syllogistic logic and symbolic logic and modality as per the self defined axioms of my own artistic confines. So in other words I am a bridge, ‘a neutral’ between syllogisms and symbolisms, between vernacular art and conceptual art (as practised by Sol de Witt, On Kawara and Joseph Kosuth in the late 60-70s). I am currently extending this bridge to capture the theorems outlined by Edgeworth Johnstone’s and Charles Thomson’s figurative paintings. So in other words, you can refer to me as 'The Neutralist' or my art as Neutralic in nature. Coupled with these various dyadic or binary relations, the media I use also has a dualistic/multiplistic nature. I used to be a pure oil painter but I am shifting my technique and consciousness in parallel with the theorems that I am engaging in on a daily basis. I am mixing digital art, traditional art, oil/acrylic/pigment painting and modern curatorial and archival practise to disseminate a series of dualisms or neutral standpoints that I am attempting to question. So Neutralic Tradigitalism could be a word you'll be hearing in the near future... maybe?

Also, now that we are on the subject of media and ideas; in order to aid me in this study I am appropriating the motif of “Jones” (Jonathan Jones to be precise) as an indicator of ‘equivalence’. Or to maybe put it another way, I am exploring a visual take on bibliometrics to trace inter-relationships between images, theorems, citations and content. I am literally just in the process of shifting my analysis from semiotics (though not entirely), to try to link the concepts of reflexivity and transitivity in relation to some artistic equivalence relations that I am currently grappling with. One could say that these are quite exciting times on Planet Udaiyan (not to sound too flippant about this).

q)What do you think sets your work apart?

a)There are lots of artists that link the various fields of art, philosophy, linguistics, mathematics, literature, poetry etc... I’m not the first to do this. I’m not even the first to analyse Deleuzian thought in regards to the artistic process. What sets me apart is myself I suppose. My own philosophy, axioms, conjectures, inferences etc, that I’m presenting within my own framework or artistic interface. So (back to the question) what sets me and my work apart is the separateness; and this leads neatly into my own thoughts about equivalence sets, reflexivity and transitivity. My own self-referential relations become a feedback mechanism. One can speak about aesthetic and artistic homeostasis in this respect; or as my wife jokingly likes to describe it: ‘As a form of Artoxytocin negating the pain of the birth of Art’. One of the questions I’m trying to wrestle with at the moment is how to arrive at some sort of stability criterion for the so called ‘Art Loop’. Any ideas would be welcome (just email me on dudaiyan@nofear.org).

q)How long have you been showing your work for? Did you have a “big break?”

a)There is the simple and the complicated answer to this one. The simple answer is 20 years plus.

The complicated answer goes like this. I've been exhibiting work in galleries and exhibitions in the traditional sense for around 20 years but my earlier work of political (revolutionary) and stoner paintings is slightly disjointed as per my new work. There were some transitory motions when I relocated my thoughts away from what I call ‘immediacy art’ to a core intense study of what exactly art is and how do we define art from the various perspectives of Stuckism, Systems art, Minimalism, Conceptualism, Neo-Conceptualism etc... From those conclusions (or even premises) I could then come to more inferences about the sort of art that was incontiguous to my own standpoint. To put it in layman’s terms and returning to the question, my art transition hasn't been a smooth ‘integer part function’ but can be (and has been) modelled by a step function (as shown by fellow Cambridge Stuckist Andreas Gentete in his ‘miles series’ of installations). When I say has been, Gentete and I did spend a few years analysing the changing relations of our art and found to our surprise that it was piecewise differentiable - in an artistic sense of course. Though, to go into the various details on that would take a while; but I suppose it could be illustrated concisely by two paintings:

http://www.udaiyan.com/images3/serlemotijon.jpg

and

http://www.udaiyan.com/images3/an_hero.jpg

I don’t make art to make money, I’m much more interested in the philosophical enquires that I can present and dissect. I use it as a tool to further my own understanding and others comprehension. Having said that, my so called ‘big break’ occurred when I started selling paintings to like minded individuals like Joseph Abrams (who is now my agent) and Dougo Hall. The type of individuals who wanted more from their art than a ‘pretty picture’; but wanted to garner a further comprehension of the big topics at the time. The sort of topics and rhizomes being discussed in ‘A Thousand Plateaus’. I now have a small band of collectors and artists (a recursive feedback collective if you will) that demonstrates the idea/ideal of Arthomeostatis.

q)What are some things that have inspired you?

a)What I interpret as inspiring is something that motivates, arouses... stimulates. Maybe in a proto-religious, sexual, philosophical sense? I’m not sure?

Apart from the theoretical considerations of Deleuze, Guattari, Lyotard there are other concepts that I take ‘into account’ when I paint. Subconsciously and consciously I am inspired by both Hinduistic and Kabbalistic elements. In my youth, I studied the works of Moses de León, the poetry of Yehuda Halevi and the notions of Gematria; and have formulated my own ideas about translating a numerical based system into a visual one.

As a nominal Hindu I do have my own notions about Samkhya Anumāna and Nyāya and other Hinduistic philosophical thoughts on logic and inference. How this inspires my work is probably for the viewers to determine?

Hmm... Now that I’m thinking about this in greater detail, I suppose there are lots of things that inspire me. My own experiences and my teachers; but to list them all would take too much of your time I’m afraid. I’ll let the viewers work out the relationships for each painting/exhibition and hopefully inspire others in the fact that the truth points to itself (usually).

q)What have you been working on recently?

a)The most important thing is that: I’m becoming a father in a few weeks time. Baby due on the 24^th December; so that will be something to stretch my mental faculties somewhat. Additionally, on the art front, I’m applying for the Zabludowicz Collection Curatorial Open.

The nature of the open is to find novel ways of expressing curatorial approaches. Looking into the collection and the ideals of what the open is intending; I am moved to collate a series of works that demonstrate the state of time, timelessness and the immediate now. Why? Well the answer is very simple. This is the launch of an annual initiative to encourage and support experimental curatorial practices. ‘Launch’ is the critical syntax that I intend to transcribe and transcend, via the confines and constraints of modern curatorial practice. Also, the symbolistic nature of ‘launch’ encourages ideas about time and its subdivision, i.e. a start point and an end point with various intermediaries in-between.

In summary what I am trying to project via the ‘curator open’ is manage the states of infinity and finity as per a temporal sense; to move beyond the launch point into a space other than that.

So, to break down the challenge: what I intend to do in this regard (and as an aid to the viewer) is define a new role of CurArtor. That is, a curator who also intersects/intervenes via the curatorial process with his/her own art works to punctuate the exhibition or to dissect certain elements of interest. A bit like a citation index or a labelling system would do in bibliographic science. Now, instigating the CurArtor role itself is not enough to propagate new axioms of thought. What I intend to do on the CurArtor front is show how timelessness can be linked into immediacy via the tools (and the TheoArticians) at my disposal.

Timelessness and immediacy, however, is too broad and dare I say too bland and clichéd a subject matter for discussion – e.g. Time and Immediacy, Youth and Age, Now and Then etc... The viewer and the gallery only have a finite space and time in which to conceptualise the timelessness and the time independent nature of the program. So, what I am proposing will be much more focused than this ‘intiality’. The real question that needs to be asked is: what artists, TheoArtisians can best present the two foundations of ‘Timelessness and Immediacy’ and yet keep it tightly focused. I am proposing the linking of the perceived Kidultism of John Bock and the Solitimelism (solitary/timelessness) of On Kawara.

So we have the set of ‘static’ pillars represented by On Kawara, John Bock and Udaiyan. As part of the new CurArtorial approach we would need to link up with David Zwirner's gallery, Kunst-Werke and implement some relational diagrams between On Kawara’s blocks, the dynamical pathways of Bocks and Udaiyan’s interventions/intersections. What I am suggesting is a branch between the Zabludowicz collection, Udaiyanist Stuckism, Zwirner and Kunst-Werke; i.e. to present the links between the discontinuous constituents to infer a new form of ArTree-adjoining grammar called: ZabUZKun. Before I speculate on this aesthetic monostratal grammatical form let me just backtrack for a second and say that: The nature of this exhibition will be time independent movement and stillness; and for the purpose of this discussion I shall refer to this as moveness.

Returning to the point in hand, I will attempt to use the values of some sort of visual generative grammar called Zabuzkun, in order to describe this moveness. Now, in order to predict the morphology of the exhibition I will be using the tools that Bock lays bare and the perceived calm and search for meaning that On Kawara implements; and then try to find that neutralic link as presented in my own works. In this sense there will be a form of linear and nolinear indexing with a control source. (One could say, that in this role I will be presenting an intervention as the CurArtor to describe (or even impose) the relational lexicons.)

This new CurArtational technique is a novel abstract or new linguistic paradigm – whose approach would naturally lend itself to the analogy of an aesthetic Rosetta stone (which will in fact be many stones or interspaced/interspersed pebbles of enquiry). These Rosetta-like stones of interrogation will aid the viewer in the translation of ‘the Thesis’ as dictated by the CurArtor.

So, in summary, the mission statement or hypothesis is this:

I will build up a unique TheoArtisional relational diagram (Zabuzkun) between the immediacy of John Bock’s work and the timelessness of On Kawara’s using the interventionist tools of the CurArtor (Udaiyan). This link/relationship blueprint called Moveness, will be interpreted via a new process model, referred to as the CurArtorial Stone.

q)Do you listen to music while you create your work? If so, would you give some examples?

a)When I paint I try to create an atmosphere of intense study; almost like an examinatory proto-environment, or the silent contemplation at a funeral of someone you’ve never met but have to remain still, just to hear your own thoughts about life, mortality and redemption.

Hmm... That sounds a bit too heavy, let’s rewind a bit and start again. Basically, I need the faculties of silence to clear my mind in order to theorise what I am doing (both on a mental level and during the physical act of painting). You can think of it as completing a dissertation (or quest) that lasts 3 to 6 months per piece and 3 to 5 years per thesis. I refer to my exhibitions as an Arthesis, as that is what is presented. You have a hypothesis, chapters or paintings revealing what you have analysed and studied; and if/ how/why you have come to any axioms. Also present are elements of ‘diagrammatical form’ to aid the viewer; artistic and philosophical citations and an index on how the exhibition is/should be presented. This is where the curatorial and archival science plays an important role. In one aspect there is ‘difference’ to a physical book based thesis in that there isn't a summarising chapter. The exhibition as a whole (and the viewer) then presides over the conclusions (if any) that need to be diagnosed and how they feed into the next topic of discourse.

Once the arthesis is presented, the viewer will then engage in an internal viva where the enquiring protagonists are themselves, their ideas, the aesthetic quality, the philosophical content and the visual stimuli.

Now that I have wandered over some of my working practises, let me tell you about some of my musical influences. I may not listen to music while I paint but I do engage in the audial act from time to time. If you or your readers are interested, my musical tastes include: Drone/Minimalist musicians like La Monte Young, Yves Klein (esp. Monotone Symphony), Alexandre Rabinovitch-Barakovsky; spectralist musicians such as Tristan Murail and Peter Eötvös; and on the popular front of course John Foxx’s Metamatic.

q)Do you do work in any other media? Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work?

a)I work as a minimalist DJ on occasion and do make experimental films with Hamilton Grayson (a fellow Cambridge Stuckist). I also do commissioned portraits that are not strictly part of my oeuvre but it does help pay the various bills. I don’t really want to go into further details as each one of these topics could take up several hours of your time and (as the typical DJ) once I get started I won’t be able to stop.

q)What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?

a)The answer is slightly obvious but disingenuous: just show your work. Now to expand and elaborate with some real life examples before I get shouted down. When I started out some 20 years back I was involved with interpretive and counter interpretive exhibitions in any venue I could find. If there was a squat, new cafe opening, a pub, a building occupation, or space that was unfilled; I would throw my paintings up for the viewers to digest and take on board. Or, I would punctuate the space: simply as a mood piece or as an example of back-grounding an idea in a spacio-temporal sense. One could say that all this was an early form of non-digital sheer-curation (so to speak).

Once work was being shown in ‘the non-gallery space’, it quickly followed/developed that it would be shown in ‘the gallery space’. Quid pro quo.

As part of the act of showing your work you need to promote tools that aid in the sharing of your work and the work of other like minded individuals. You need to be involved in the detailed asset management of the exhibition and build a solid foundation for future shows, while quietly integrating your work-flow into the management and dissemination of ideas (so as not to dictate and overtly manage the exhibition/fellow artists/curators). Thus you can build a competent team of exhibitors, artists, collectors and curators – which will in turn build-up upon itself to form some sort of feedback mechanistic multifurcated tree structure.

q)Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of your work that you can mention?

a)I’m going to have more shows planned next year as well as going for the Zabludowicz CurArtion thing I mentioned above. More details can be found on my website www.udaiyan.com, which I’ll update when I get more details and when I have time. Also, check the Stuckism site www.stuckism.com for any group/solo shows that I’ll be taking part in. There should (in theory) be one in March 2011?

q)Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

a)Ok, I’ll keep this one short as I’m running out of time. You can view the main body of my work at

www.udaiyan.com

This is my main site. I’m currently re-working some paintings and some essays (due to several criticisms I might add), so pop by regularly to see the updates. I am also involved in Unesco’s Uranias Gardens’ Project: uraniasgardens.blogspot.com and of course The Stuckists: www.stuckism.com

Interview with Lucas Simões

2010-11-28T12:12:00.000-08:00

q)Who are you? Where are you from and


where do you live now?

a)My name is Lucas Simões I’m Brasilian,

artist and also architect, I

live and work in São Paulo

q)What is it that you do?

What media do you use?

a)in my work i use many different media,

I interfere in these media,

creating new meaning and sensations.

Lately I have been working with

books and photographs, but I`m

not a photographer.

I also have a lot of works using maps,

and other using mirrors.

q)What do you think sets your work

apart?

a)Maybe the easy way I move from one

media to another…

q)How long have you been showing your work for?  

Did you have a “big break?”

a)Well, actually I`ve been interested in art

and producing art since I

was very young, I made my fist solo

exhibition when I was 17, It was

absolutely another kind of work,

but I never stopped trying new things

since then.

Studying architecture was really inspiring

and made my work grow a lot.

I usually take a break between my fase

of creation, that’s why work as

an architect is also important for me,

it catalysis the mind, gives

time for my imagination to breathe.

q)What are some things that have inspired

you?

a)Life inspires me, music, friends, places,

ideas, mainly ideas I guess.

I like to study philosophy

( I wish I have more time for that)

q)What have you been working

on recently?

a)My latest work are portraits of really

close friends of mine, which I

invited to tell me a secret while I photograph

them, but I didn’t

listen to the secret, I asked them to choose

a song for me to listen

in my headphone while they were telling it.

the idea is to capture

this expression of telling a secret .

from this shooting session I

chose 10 different pictures which I

cut-out and overlay, creating a

"secret" portrait, with depth and different

patterns of cut. I also

asked them if the secret has any color,

and these are the color in the

portraits.

there are also the quasi-cinema works

(almost-cinema) that are made

with pictures I took from everyday-life or travels,

and for me some of

them would be a piece of a movie.

So I developed repeated frames with

a little move and sewed them on wood and

fabric, creating a stripe

that remembers cinema

the works with book are mainly a play

with the idea of culture and the

fetish knowledge, and what a book

represents with it

q)Do you listen to music while you create your work?  

If so, would you give some examples?

a)I always listen to music when im working,

lately I have been listening

a lot of Caetano Veloso, many different

albumns from him, also

brazlian music from the 60`s and 70`s,

and Coco Rosie.

q)Do you do work in any other media?

Other projects not necessarily related to your

main body of work?

a)For me it’s hard to say that my work has

a “body”, it’s easy to

realize the idea and connect them, but the

media are always changing.

q)What advice do you have for artists looking

to show their work?

a)To connect with people that like to share

opinions and ideas and

search engines no make exhibitons,

it’s important do participate

concourses and make exhibitions, and

think about the work.

q)Do you have any upcoming exhibitions of

your work that you can mention?

a)My next exhibition will be in New York,

a collective exhibition at

Josée Beinvenu gallery. I will show the works

from the research with

portraits and books

q)Where can people see more of your work

on the internet?

a)All my works are in my flickr

www.flickr.com/lucsa