Archive for April, 2006
Stephan Doitschinoff aka Calma (www.stephandoit.com.br) is a illustrator, painter, street-artist… from São Paulo (Brazil) that I had the chance to meet a couple of years ago when visiting that amazing city. Back then he was already a very active artist and had started to manage making a living with his art already but since then he’s been particularly busy traveling to the US and Europe for shows and projects and his very peculiar and distinctive imagery full of religious connotations and sentences in Latin have become known to a much bigger audience around the globe. Recently he has also done a series of painting for Sepultura’s last album and one full page of Juxtapoz magazine has featured one of his painting that was exhibited in BLK/MRKT gallery in California for a anniversary group show. We are looking forward to his show at Subaquatica early in 2007 and in the meantime we wanted to talk to him about his work, current and upcoming projects and wherabouts.
When, where, how and why you started to do work on the streets?
I started back in Sao Paulo when I was 14/15, doing stencils with punk rock designs like the Black Flag bars and later on with my own drawings… at that time it was just about skateboarding, playing with my band and having fun, get a spraycan, go bomb some stencils and write some random words.
São Paulo is a city where there is a long tradition, first with Pixação, later with Hip Hop Graffiti and worldwide famous writers like Os Gemeos and in the recent years there have been also many artists doing art on the streets with other techniques, what we could call Street Art, like yourself, also getting global recognition. I have a couple of questions about SP:
How accurate do you think the image people from other parts of the world have about the whole SP situation (art-in-the-streets-wise)?
“Ars Mori” 2004. Mixed media on wall. Porto alegre, Brazil.
I’m not sure but I guess it’s kinda difficult to really get the right picture before you go there… how can one explain the vibe an art scene has? You got to go and check it out…
How do you feel SP has affected your work being such a gigantic, crazy (and also amazing) city and how do you expect to affect the city and its people?
I think I have been influenced a lot by Sao Paulo! It’s where I grew up and where my roots are.
From Pixo letters to Candomble and Umbanda culture, from the Sacred Arts Museum (one of my favorite spots in SP) to the local punk/hardcore scene, and of course from my friends. Also, I don’t know if I expect to affect either the city or the people, but I am very glad every time I get any positive response.
“Help Me!!!”. 2006. Mixed media on Electrolux Refrigerator. Instalation at Contact Theater, Manchester, UK.
Now you seem to be participating in many shows all over and also getting commissioned work but going back a little how did you first felt as an artist, as someone that would be making a living with your art?
In 2000, when, after quitting my job I first decided to make a living from illustration, of course I was a bit afraid of failing and had to work in an office again… at that time I had to do some random jobs, I’ve worked with lots of different things including a car-wash and a supermarket. But it feels different knowing it’s a side job while you are trying to show your portfolio to people and get some illustration job or something…
In your work there’s a clear influence of religious iconography. Where does it come from?
I grew up in a very strict religious environment, being my father a protestant priest I grew up hanging out in the local church and I was supposed to be always there, go to the church’s summer camp and stuff, it was very heavy and full of rules and pressure. Soon I would not accept all that control and I rebelled against all those ideas, by the age of 14 I started hanging out with the skate kids in my neighborhood and got into punk, skateboarding and also into underground comics, that was when I first saw the work of Brazilian underground cartoonist Francisco Marcatti and for the first time in got interested in drawing comics as a possible career.
Sometimes your work seems to show a dark side of all that religious images. Are you being critical, do you feel a religious or spiritual person?
“All Is Vanity”. 2005. 60 x 60 cm. Mixed media on canvas.
Religious art is what really inspires me. From Ars-moriendi to Tibetan Buddhism to Voodoo imagery, all symbolic/spiritual and mythological art has always been my main passion and my main influence. And it’s what I am trying to do as well. Yes I consider myself a spiritual person and yes, some of the imagery you see in my work criticizes the commercialization of religion and how the spiritual power owned by the churches is being used to control the masses and support corrupted governments.
In one of your paintings “The Annunciation”, there are 2 characters, I guess that one would be a virgin and the other an angel or archangel but they are engaged in such a strange behavior such as the angel character biting the virgin’s hand or surrounded by disturbing elements like the sword going through the virgin’s head, a diamond or the name Abraxas, a evil-good deity. All these seem to be indicative precisely of that same concept as in Abraxas, of a dual nature in everything, not only human but also divine where every good must have an evil counterpart but also might be just critical with the hypocritical attitudes of churches or of the human side of divine beings. Could you elaborate on this?
“The Annunciation”. 2005. 60 x 60 cm. Mixed media on canvas.
Sure, starting with the message brought by Abraxas angel: “Lasciate ogni mediocritá” which is Latin for “Leave your mediocrity behind”. (Note: It was believed that Abraxas was the name of a god who incorporated both good and evil, the myths of a non-dual god. Abraxas has, like many other “pagan menaces” such as the “Goddess” and “Baphomet”, been declared by the church as another face of Satan and has vanished away from popular culture…) In The Divine Comedy, the angel appears every time one has paid his sins and is ready to upgrade a level in purgatory, as a metaphor for leaving mediocre ways of thinking behind. The difficulty in this detachment is shown by the virgin holding tight the bird of guilt, shame and frustration. The angel’s presence and message project her shadow (shadow as in the psychological term) and reveal the diamond (representing the path to the soul) that is the object of the Annunciation. Meaning that the way to achieve enlightenment would be finding, accepting, and incorporating the shadow, to find the egg of light.
In another of your paintings titled “Spiritual Grill / All You Can Eat Meat Hosts” you seem to portray an image of Christ also full of contradictions or opposites such as the tragical and the comical, the spiritual and the commercial, the mystical and the corporeal… All these concepts, that creates a shocking experience on the observer because of the mixture of diverse and opposite ideas seems to be a common theme in your work. Maybe if you can explain this particular image a little bit it would be a helpful “guide” to your paintings in general.
“Spiritual Grill / All You Can Eat Meat Hosts”
This painting is about the misappropriation and commercialization of ancient sacred rituals, in this case the ritual of eating the god’s flesh. Borrowed from older religions, Christian mythology has taken the act of eating the sacred being as a way to incorporate the spirit of god into the human body through the ritual. So the painting is about Jesus being a bull ready to be cut down for a BBQ and on the letters that surround the beast you read “ex gutta melis, generatur flumina fellis” (like a drop of honey that generated a river of bile). So, from the original drop of honey (Christ and the Christian idea of unconditional love, respect and altruism) comes the river of bile (the church and hundreds of years of genocide, lies, the holy inquisition etc)…
You have worked doing illustration for different music bands, recently for Sepultura. How do you approach your work in these occasions? How does the music for which you are doing work affects it?
I would ask the band what is the whole concept for the album if there is one. For Sepultura’s record, the album was inspired by Dante’s “Divina Comedia”, so I studied the 3 books and researched Dante’s life and times. In other cases, like when I worked with band Saves the Day, Chris (the vocal and main songwriter) just wrote me this very long email telling me how he felt and what he was writing about…
“Drug Paradise”. 2005. 60 x 60 cm. Mixed media on canvas.
You seem to get a lot of commissioned work for record labels, shops, etc… And at the same time you do paintings and other work for art shows. When you compare the ones with the other I get the feeling that these are not so different because you probably get a lot of freedom from the clients and companies when you get commissioned work. Is this so? Do you realize many other artists are very conditioned when they do commissioned work? What do you think is the key for getting that freedom?
I don’t know what the key is but choosing carefully your clients and where you want to be is a good start. I consider myself lucky to work with people that give me freedom to create, but it is like this mainly in the music industry. You know, musicians get creative composing and performing music, so they admire what you do and let it go. But when you are working with a brand, and that means it’s through an ad company, then you are working with guys that do work creating visuals… and they mainly already know what they want when they approach us.
You’ve been traveling quite a lot during the last couple of years, after we met. You have been to California for a collective show at the BLK MRKT gallery and also to NY, LA, Pittsburgh and lately you’ve had a show in Manchester. Do you feel all this is making your work mutate or evolve quicker or differently as if you had stayed in SP all this time?
Yes, I’m sure it influences me a lot, but I’m not sure how it does, yet. What I can say is that it’s been a big honor to exhibit my work along with artists that I have been a fan of for years such as Espo, Kinsey and Tiffany Bozic.
Although Internet seems to be playing a big role making all information spread out faster and therefore one might think that differences tend to decrease I would like to hear your view on the difference between the US and the European Underground-Street-Art-Nu-Pop-Alternative art scenes because of how you’d had the chance to work here and there and also where do you think Brazil and Latin America fits into all this.
“Mental Health” Mixed media on door, 2006, Manchester, UK.
The American and European “art machine” seems to work pretty well even in the urban/lowbrow art scene, playing big roles in galleries, even in museums, media etc, but once you go to South America its still very underground and small, of course there are people there making it happen but not as much as around here…
How did all this work and shows come about? Maybe it was precisely Internet and being featured in a website such as woostercollective.com helped. How do you feel Internet has changed the way artists relate to other artists, the public in general, galleries, etc…?
Yes I can say it helped me a lot, especially to break the distance… You know, living in Brazil everything seems so far away… there is this very heavy economic barrier on the way, i.e. a ticket bought in Brazil to Europe or to the US is much much more expensive than the other way around, also all the trouble to get a visa, etc…
So through my own website and sites that supported me like Wooster, Shift Japan, BrasilInspired and Ekosystem I got the opportunity to contact artists and galleries and exhibit in other countries.
“Ani Aeurora, Goddess of Sex and Milk”. 2005.
Any new projects coming up that you might what to share with us?
Well, right now I’m working on a set of canvasses for All Star Hustlaz show in White Walls Gallery (SF), and also for solo shows coming up in Berlin and Melbourne.
Something you want to do that it hasn’t been proponed to you yet?
I want to paint a big ship and let it sail the ocean.
April 30th, 2006 08:35pm
Administrador
Finally, our most adventurous reporter, Zirus the virus bring us, with quite some delay for which we apologize, the second part of the craziest artist interview-feautre in this place. It’s the replica interview to the previous one (see here) mantained by Zirus and Tiñas. Now Pelukas takes revenge and talks about his twin brother Tiñas.
Hey Pelucas, the tape is rolling…
Wassup man? What a pressure! (laughs)
You know I’m calling to interview you, right?
Yes
We know it was a big surprise for you that we interviewed your brother to get more info about you.
Yeah, well, there’re just a few surprises left…
Do you agree with the things he told us?
Pff… With some of them he freaked out a little, he’s such a motherfucking liar. He’s nuts. He makes up stories; he’s such a schizo! But, you know, he’s a good guy… I don’t know if I agree (thinking) just let it be, let it be!
Man, I know you and he described you quite well!
No…not in all of the things. It’s all your fault, you sucker (laughs), it’s all your fault, you fucking missionary!
Come on! It’s just a little Graffiti gossip .
Man, I don’t know. He said a thousand things that I don’t remember now. My memory is failing lately…
That’s because you’re not spiteful.
No… I’ve got just love for my brother and it’s mutual… since we used to touch each other when we were kids.
Really??!! You discovered sex together?
Sure, man, it’s normal. We used to jerk off together and suck each other (laughs) that’s why I got nothing against him!
El Tiñas told us about your life in Cabeza de Manzaneda or about Heavy metal… what would you say was influential from your childhood?
I don’t know… Manzaneda was great.
And the Salesians? The urban camp? [note: as the name says, it’s a substitute of the summer camps for kids from Vigo whose parents couldn’t send them to the country. They would hang around with the “best kids” in town]
The Salesians! Nobody survived that! You either came out of there as a junky or a schizo. At the urban camp we would be drawing and stuff, singing a lot of shit and it was a dick salad (laughs). We didn’t have girls in my school until we were in 8º EGB (8th grade of elementary school). Eight years without women! Then we got out of there and that’s why Alex (Tiñas) started drawing so many dicks, and he still does…
You’re the one that draws dicks!
No, no… he’s the one… well, I draw them stuffed and he draws them empty.
Good shade, maybe it’s because of the frustration?
Well, we also have Castilian genes. From the countryside steppe. It’s pretty tough there. There’s this iberic stuff, very virile. Spanish macho, you know?
But do you identify with all that?
No, not at all… but some Castillian gene survived all that (laughs). Pff, I’m starting to talk bullshit! Like Alex! (laughs)
Can you say five words that describe Tiñas´personality?
(thoughtful) eeeh… obstruct, knickers, concrete, insect and wigs! (note: pelucas means wig in Spanish) Fuck, man, I don’t know, I’m going nuts, these last days have been all alcohol and schizophrenia. You got me in a bad moment!
The other day I talked to Alex and he was in the Doñana Park (Natural Park in Andalusia) in a van, going nomad through the Andalusian coast.
Motherfucker! He’s doing fine. He went with his friends, these freaks, political madmen, that will save the planet!
Fuck man, they’re nice people…
Yeah sure, but I gotta defend my own freaks, my friends.
So it’s rancor what’s moving you.
Nooo, well, yes it is. You gotta throw it out, isn’t it?
Is nature important to Tiñas and his work?
Definitely. He’s got naturist and hippie chinks.
Why did you get these names?
Alex, when he was in the polytechnic school in Vigo, got his from the scooter boys and his friends because he would cut his own hair and would look like a dog with mange, with the dandruff and the bald patch. He actually loved the name (Tiñas, which is ringworm in Spanish). I got mine from my brother and some other friend. At 16 or 17 I dyed my hair and I had a wig. It was the time when Beakman was on TV. They used to call me Beakman and then Pelucas. I would go out and the drunks would pull my hair thinking it was fake! There’s a guy people call Wig in every town!
And you kept the name…
Yes, I identified with it, because deep in me I loved the wig… and I had a great time combing it like Nancy. (laughs)
And now Tiñas have another AKA: Liken.
Well… he thinks he’s the nature itself. Sometimes he thinks he’s got the divine word of the Nature. You know, the lichen thing and all the shamanic stuff, he likes all that shit.
We enter here the point of drugs we discussed with your brother. What you have to say about that?
Well, it influences it, but not anymore. I don’t use drugs. They used to make me search for the hidden part inside me. Hidden images, they boost it a lot.
What about him?
The same. But he didn’t like them very much so he went into this straight edge period but, at the end of the day he was the biggest junky. He did it because he cared about us, really. But, you know, it was a good influence for the drawings. I did my best drawings on lsd. Arriving at home and not being able to sleep and do these incredible drawings.
You told me about the Bisolvon for drawing…
But that’s recently. It’s like opium, it relaxes you but your mind is very active and you feel great. For drawing it’s like a trip. Like the Incal.
I talked with Tiñas about the big contrast between you and him, but I want to know your opinion.
What Alex says always make sense. We’re like two brain hemispheres separated. Like if someone would have separate our brains. Well, actually that’s what I believe happened. Tiñas went for the fight and punishment way and I’m more like the crazy one…
Hedonist? Do you like living well?
Of course! Hedonism, lack of self-control, dirty tricks and transparence! (laughs). No, seriously, happiness… we’re going to be fucked up anyway so…I prefer the destroyer, nonsense, and stupid way.
Talk about Los Niños Especiales (the special children: www.nenosespeciais.tk/)
…pff… it isn’t really anything. It’s what it is. We’re a bunch of friends, we hang around together. We don’t have any project or so… Los niños Especiales is just a sentence that you can identify with or not. I probably know lots of special children that Tay, Tiñas or Kiko don’t know, but they are still specials even if they’re not in the group. It’s an open group. It’s the antigroup. No woman no crew! Vigo´s crew! I don’t know what we are… I’m in no condition to answer that.
So, it’s a “death to all groups” kind of group, right? We’re all specials, isn’t it?
Yeah, that’s exactly the thing! I love them a lot because they’re special. No, I hate them!
Let’s get to the important issue. I want you to make clear a few things about your brother.
He’s got a strong character and that reflects in the things he does, in his drawings, but sometimes he’s just too much. Sure, I’m like his reflection, you know? All his bad moods come to me. He’s a little dictator, when we’re doing things together. He won’t let me paint. When he sees a big ears guy with legs he starts hitting me and spoiling what I’m doing.
Tell me something about his work.
His drawings are very serious, sometimes a little too much. Some are extremely apocalyptic, chaotic, and violent…but I counteract that (laughs). His way of working is completely different to mine, is loving and methodical. Behind all this hate you can see a light of pure love. He’s a loving teddy bear with an incredible power. Thankfully he started drawing, other way he would be at Rebullón (note: Vigo´s Mental Asylum). Sometimes he says something and the next minute he’s saying the opposite. Black holes, tumors, illness, he’s a little schizo. I think he needs a cig. Some parties and orgies! You can see a lot of fear in his drawings. Sometimes we think he’s in this sect with crazy people from Gracia, the guys he lives with (note: Gracia is a Barcelona neighborhood). But the sect is his own brain, he can’t be sicker. His dream would be sticking tubes and cables, but not up his ass, everywhere! Like Tetsuo, his self-destruction! He always draws dicks and pussies, but less lately. I used to like it a lot because he draws them with lots of strength, lots of love (He is really tender! at least with me….we love each other) the thing is that he cannot cope with this and he rather keep going with his mental therapy of lines and tai-chi… of black holes! (empty phalluses, waiting for a factory to fill them in!)
Many of these characters are these tumors you are talking about, represented by the black circle (social tumors, personal tumors…)
Yeah: catastrophe, apocalypses… black holes, and empty phalluses.
You talked about Incal, the comic by Moebius and Jodorowsky. You see Moebius as an influence in Tiñas work?
I don’t know… Alex influences himself. I think he is influenced more by real life images and things he sees first hand, nature… Much more than by other artists.
If you had to choose a clear influence in his work what would it be?
Clear influences… Buff, that would be really long! things like scrap yards, industry, press photos, the goods, the evil. What really influences him is the circumstances under which human beings live, his own nature, human shapes, human body and obviously self-destruction… From what you cannot run!!
And to finish things off, one question I made to your brother in our previous interview: Is there something you would like to ask your brother that you never had the chance to ask in person?
What I would like to say to Alex is; I hate you motherfucker! we should join again, sew us together again cause things are much more complicated now. The wig with the ringworm! We should create the definitive monster. You are fed up with drawing so many and none satisfy you completely. Come… come with me. I’ve got needles and rope. We could share our sickness and my freaks will be your freaks! We would be ready to destroy the city with our misunderstood love!!!
Incredible ending, Pelucas. A big hug and good luck in your Centro European exile!
Interview by: Zirus the virus.
April 27th, 2006 10:28am
Administrador
Surprise, surprise: We’ve been secretly working on a new project here at our underwater complex and it’s time we finally let people know what we’ve been up to. This is one of those projects that put us into a state of a continuous headache and has zero economical return but we can’t help but doing once in a while. In this ocassion the project consists on a open air installation, right in front of the most famous contemporary art museum in Spain, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. For the project we have selected 6 artists or collectives that have something in common: They all come from a Graffiti or Street Art background (most are still active) and also work with video one way or another (wheter is Motion Graphics, Animation…).
These are the participating artists:
Blu (Bologna) www.blublu.org
Finsta (Stockholm) www.finstafari.com/
HearOne (Madrid) www.sintevision.com
Will Barras (Bristol / London) www.willbarras.com
Edbyus - Mr Slurp & G1 of Freaklub- (Barcelona) www.mrslurp.com
Espaun256 & Nano4814 (Madrid) www.espaun.com & www.fotolog.com/nano4814
As you can see the presentation of this installation will be next thursday May 4th but it will be open until May 15th. “Mind Powers” is part of the program of the Cultura Urbana 06 (www.culturaurbana.ya.com) festival consisting of many activities, most of them between the 13th and 14th of may in the Antiguo Matadero space in Madrid. “Poderes mentales”, is a “satellite” activity that has been curated and coordinated by Sergio Aguilar and Juan Abia for Subaquatica and has counted with the support of Montana (www.montanacolors.com).
We will be adding more information and pictures in the mini-site here: www.subaquatica.com/poderesmentales but you can take a look already if you want to find out a little bit more about “Mind Powers”.
April 25th, 2006 05:54pm
Administrador
“We are not allowed to be here”: This is how Aaron Rose starts his new documentary about Beautiful Losers. The here is the white neutral space of a gallery where the about first and only exhibition about contemporary art and street culture is going to be shown. A space where these artists would have never imagined to be posible to ocupy if it wasn’t for this man (one one the 2 curators of the show, along with Christian Strike). I’m at the Triennale di Milan (Italy) and I’m glad that they came to this point, so I can see it, share it and live it as well. 10:30h in the morning, Sunday, I came just for this. I enter and I know that this is not going to be a quick visit.
Mike Mills
Os Gemeos
The space of the Triennale couldn’t be better. Two corridors divide the exhibition in three parts in a way that it’s posible to walk through it easily. The “influences” part has a starting point that introduces the less ilustrated in the ways of the american underground that, since the 60’s, is full of different youth subcultures. Be aware, you won’t find just one way for the world of “Beautiful Losers”. It is full of different directions, pasts and stories and it only exists from the encounter of all these conditions. Maybe that’s why it wasn’t considered a movement on it’s own. Even “The Disobidients” drunk from the best wines, better said, from the best beers! (Note: “The Disobidients” is a term coined by Tokion magazine -in May 2002- to describe a movement of artists who use the aesthetics and distribution tactics of Street art but cross breed them with a strange brew of Pop culture, illustration, commercial toy production, critical intelligence and artistic integrity.) All the glorious past of Dogtown can be seen in the black and white photos of Craig R. Stecyk (Note: Dogtown is a nickname for the beach area at the Santa Monica/Venice border in California, famed for its skateboarding and surfing culture and known for the documentary and book “Dogtown and Z-Boys“) and helped by Tommy Guerrero’s music instalation we go through (Henry) Chalfant’s New York Graffiti, (Raymond) Pettibon’s Surf, Larry Clark’s sex and by the time we get to see the Ari Marcopoulos photos we are already one of the skaters. We are now prepared to begin to see the real exhibition.
Beautiful Losers, much more than a group or even a movement, is the work of an entire family, of a group of people who use such a close language that you can almost see them by your side, doing their pieces and just having fun. In an art that is rebel with a cause you find an unexpected sweetness and peace in the moment of expresing their way of thinking. Don’t fool yourselves though, this is not a hippie kind of art, this is a often illegal art that still fights the power and at the same time demands the right to party. But when they get to do it, all you can see is colour and suddenly everything turns easy. You don’t have to think, you just have to feel and let the beauty of these “losers” lead you and make you want to be one of them. Claire E. Rojas impressed me, Geoff McFetridge amused me and Brian Donnelly followed me to the second part of the show.
Claire E. Rojas
Claire E. Rojas
With a big smile on my face I sit in front of a screen where something was about to begin, this is the surprise gift of this exhibition: the documentary about Beautiful Losers, how it started, where, when, who and why in only 40 minutes. When it’s over you can always see it again because it’s incredible or you can jump to the seat next to you and watc and remember the golden years of “Style Wars” or just watch a good Habitat (skateboards) video. Skate is everywhere: magazines, zines and an entire wall dedicated to show an endless number of skateboards, pro-models of known skateboarders of today and yesterday painted by all these artists. Here is where the low art gets to have its 15 minutes of fame. All kind of magazines talk about them, every gallery just has to have them, and suddendly limited-editions are being made with their work. The underground turns commercial and I found myself in a room full of giant bears ( 1000% Be@rbricks) hanging from the ceiling each bearing the familiar sign of a known “loser”.
By the time I get to the third part of the exhibition I see that the best was left for the last part. My camera is giving signs of dead batteries, not that I’m allowed to take photos anyways. And while the first two security guys look the other way a third man isn’t gonna make it easy for me. But my mission has to be acomplished so I head full gas and enter the worlds of Phil Frost, Ryan McGinness, pass through (Ed) Templeton’s photos and Spike Jonze’s video and stop totally amazed to find the genius that is Harmony Korine; “Above the Below” is unbelievably beautiful. Reaching the final stage I meet Margaret Kilgallen and I understand it all. Sometimes one look is but enough to know that you found your place. Barry McGee (aka Twist) salutes us at the beggining and says goodbye at the end of the exhibition with two of his mythical instalations o animated mannequins painting on the wall. A Graffiti artist painting in a musem wall is always fine with me.
Barry McGee
Barry McGee
I get out of the Triennale happy and sure of one thing: Spain deserves this exhibition to see if once and for all the people of this country start to understand that Street art is not vandalism but the other way around. Everything depends on how you do things and how you really want to listen to what you are being told. While I get myself in the plane to get back to Barcelona and just sleep of exhaustation and I think of these “losers”, of these nobodies that turned into somebodies. In the end they will always turn out to be losers again and for me that’s beauty of this exhibition.
Text & pictures: Ana Neto
Links:
http://www.iconoclastusa.com/projects/current.html
http://www.beautifullosers.it/
Note: This show is on exhibit at Le Tri Postale, Avenue Willy Brandt, Lille (France) from 13th April until 2nd July 2006 from 1:00 pm until 8:00pm Tuesdays through Sundays (closed on Mondays).
According to a recent conversation with Aaron Rose the “Beautiful Losers” documentary should be released on DVD some time along 2007
April 8th, 2006 08:31pm
Administrador
Silly Thing (www.silly-thing.com/ or www.think-silly.com) is a Hong Kong based collective, fashion company, record label, design studio… well, we are not sure exactly what’s their main actitivy but they seem to be really busy doing new things and one of their latest acomplishment has been co-producing a toy figure designed by UK illustrator James Jarvis with his brand Amos Toys (www.amostoys.com) It’s a revisited version of his classical character Martin only bigger and with oriental eyes, and this time called Leon. These toys have quickly become nearly impossible to get and they’ve sold out already in most places. In fact you will be really lucky to find them somewhere else online except for our online shop where you can buy them here for the black version and here for the orange one.
April 7th, 2006 06:38pm
Administrador
For this month’s interview we wanted to show you the work of two of our favorite Spanish artists, twin brothers Tiñas and Pelucas (www.fotolog.com/los_especialitos). Thinking about a way of doing so in an original way, we thougth that instead of interviewing them together, why not let each one of them talk about the work of the other from that privileged perspective that is being born together and with identical genes? For this we are going to divide the interview in two parts. In this, the first part, el Tiñas, now living in Barcelona, talks about his brother (who is lost somewhere in central Europe) and before april is gone, Pelucas will get his revenge throwing some ligth over his other half works. We could talk for hours about the psychotropic world defined by Pelucas characters, but as an introduction let’s just say that what you see is what he is. His characters, although simple and naive in appearance, depict a deep and chaotic inside world, camouflaged behind the blinding sparks produced by the fluorescent pink. Pelucas is the closest you can get to my definition of an artist. Those who get to know him are not left indifferent and, no doubt about it, walls of the cities he goes through are not the same never again. What comes next is a transcription of a phone conversation with his “other self” and twin brother Tiñas that I hope gives you another point of view from where to enjoy the work of this acid entity.
Hello Tiñoso.
Hi
I am calling about the interview. Are you ready?
Yes… go on.
Ok. Let’s start from the beginning… Since you were little kids you started to do creative stuff together.
Yes, kind of. We were always drawing together. We used to make scale models with recycled stuff, joint drawings…
And also bicycles, right?
Yeah, we designed bicycles…. some freak ones! (laughs) But most of all we were doing big scale models and painting them together.
Were did you grow up?
In downtown Vigo and also in Manzaneda (note: a village in the mountains of Galicia) since we were 3 to 6 years old.
Was that significant? Living in Manzaneda?
Yeah, definitely…. I have the greatest memories. I remember everything. You breathed another kind of air. When we got back to the city it was very bad.
About what time did you start doing things in the streets?
Well, at school, when we were 13 or 14, we had a crew that was called TAB (The Anarchist Boys) with Let and more kids. We were drawing together and sometimes we went out to paint a wall. Then we stopped, and until after we met Nano (4814) at the Fine Arts Schooll in Pontevedra we didn’t start to go out more often to paint in the streets.
But you were already interested…
Of course, but to me, Graffiti is something that I am not so interested about. Pelucas is much more into it. I like the street as a medium to communicate and spray paint as a tool has many advantages. Is dynamic, you have many colors, layer over layer…
You started going to college together.
Yes, and we started to paint walls around Pontevedra, each one of us with our characters and collaborating with people from the city.
Now that you’re talking about characters. The way I see it the personal worlds you created with him, they are like two sides of the same coin.
Yeah, is something kind of skizo…. really bipolar when we get together.
You evolved together but each one doing something really different to the other. Is it always as if you are complementary with each other?
Yes, but the fish always bites his own tail. We follow two paths so different that in the end are really similar and then again. We do different things but sometimes we do things too similar. Well, man…. Pelucas tends to repeat one thing over and over and I do many different things… he just draws himself as a ball with ears and is obsessed
with putting legs and hands to everything he can think of!
Are you saying that your brother’s work is too simple? (laughs)
No! in his case, simplicity and complexity are united. With less you can do more.
Like the minimalists? (laughs)
Sure, Pelucas is a minimalist (laughs) no, he is more a “manimal“!
Yeah man, do you remember Manimal?
Yes, what a comic! I would like to read it again.
Is the world of comic books an influence for Pelucas’ world?
It’s the main influence! Pelucas could have ended up drawing for Marvel comics.
How would you describe your brother’s world of characters?
Pelucas world is really toy! he’s gotten everything he does from Willy Wonka! (laughs). No, not Willy Wonka, he copies little kid’s drawings and kids books. How do you call this characters that are exactly like his, round…
Ah! Mister Men, isn’t it?
Yes! Pelucas used to masturbate with those.
But his characters are more like Mr Men on acid! (lots of laughs)
I am looking right now at something he did right opposite my house and I am scared!
His way of working can be quite impulsive at times but I reckon sometimes he thinks too much… at least way more than what it seems at first sight, right?
Yeah, he usually thinks over and over, but it depends… he’s got moments where he thinks too much and some others where he thinks with his feet and just acts… it’s hard to explain. He takes a little bit from anywhere and just transforms it with his “obstructism”.
Great that you mention this because I wanted to ask you about this. Tell me about this new avant-garde movement known as “obstructism”!! (laughs)
The father of obstructism is Pulgas (Outon´s dog, artist and ex-flat mate). We were always looking at him, his behavior, his attitudes and we saw that he had these strange changes of personality. Sometimes he was cute and affectionate and the second after he was mad and aggressive. I was living with him for one whole year and every time I got home he would bark at me as if he had no idea who I was and then and he would bite me and calm down. We realized he was the first schizophrenic dog. And then Pablovich (a.k.a. Outon) and more crazy guys began to do collective paintings in any way possible. I don’t know, obstructism is that: mind blockage. I mean, we are all so deranged that we should ignore that perfection in art that everybody is looking for. Everything is very rubbishy, very nihilistic. It’s a “we are sick and depraved and that’s about it” thing. It has something to do with the society we live in. We are in Babylon, everything is done, search of originality makes no sense. Throwing out rubbish as what’s around us is what obstructism is.
And everyone did that in his own way, right? You did it one way, Pelucas another way, Tay, Outón, Guasa, Eliseo.
Yes, everyone in his own style.
Do you think studying fine arts had some impact on Pelucas?
That’s obvious… Study of art history is really cruel.
What do you think Pelucas sees in the streets to spend so much time there?
I think he sees many, many things. The street itself as a canvas for his craziness or how easy it is to get up there saying so many things directly to everyone. He transmits a personal and 100% obstruct message. The street is powerful.
When you were kids, did you spend much time in the streets?
We were there all the time. We were always playing around our neighborhood, in the
park with the people. We hanged out with Heavy Metal kids all the time… they were into Iron Maiden, AC-DC,, calimocho and tripping on acid.
Can we say that drugs are a direct influence also on the work of Pelucas? A basic part of what he does is based on his perspective of reality through drugs?
Well… this is true when he is high, but not when he is sober. I think drugs make him do more interesting things. When he is not on drugs he is more obstructed than when he is under the influence of a substance or an ambience. He gets more loose and he comes up with more pure stuff.
More straightforward?
Yeah… He explores another parts of his brain that he doesn’t use in other moments.
But this is something that happens consciously or unconsciously? Is this something you see…?
Unconsciously for sure. I don’t know. I guess he is aware of this sometimes. It depends.
Another important thing are his travels. He is travelling quite a lot. He is now living in Brussels. He was one year living in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain). He was in London for a short while also and it looks like wherever he goes he messes the whole place up!
Yes. He recruits his army among the freaks and deranged. The sickest, the best (laughs).At least, everytime I go visit him to any of this places he is surrounded by a bunch of freaks. Always painting with people.
He is really prolific, right?
He works non stop. I don’t know when he is going to stop.
Can you tell me something i didn’t ask you but that you think is important so the people can get a closer idea of how Pelucas is?
I don’t know, really… well, he wants to be famous but he can’t!
I am sure that’s got something to do with his obsession with the 80´s!! (laughs) That’s because the 80’s were better. He misses his childhood!
I am sure about that, but it’s also due to his friend Arturo Revoiras, who lived the 80’s with intensity and is always telling us stories about that time, the music, the parties…
..and electric colors and junkie tracksuits!
Yeah! and less mind pressure than there is today. And low rubbish culture also! I don’t know exactly what he likes.
But it’s totally clear that he loves that time period.
Yeah, he always had it inside him.
Is there anything you wold like to tell your brother that you don’t dare to tell him in person?
No… I always tell him everything to his face! That’s why he cannot stand me! (laughs) I tell him how he is and whatever I want to say to his face… some days I tell him he is a piece of crap and the following day I tell him I am sorry and that I love him…. well, I never really say I love him. That’s true (more laughs). Well… (thinking) I feel affection for him… I feel something!
You bring more to one another, creativity wise, when you are together or far away?
I think that at this point it makes no difference. We have travelled our own path but I am sure that when we get together everything flows great.
Do you think that your hometown of Vigo defines in any way what Pelucas does?
I think so. He is always on the run. All his drawings are like very…. ññññññññññññ! (repeats this sound with his mouth) very evil, and Vigo is like that. It’s a very chaotic and aggressive city. He’s got a more colorful touch than Vigo.
He is hiding that with color.
He hides it a lot. I have to say also that he is a sybarite and he drinks loads of Coca-Cola!!
And he is obsessed with tobacco.
The fags! (cigarettes) he started to smoke not too long ago but he used to be kind of anti-smoking and now he smokes a lot.
Is he using his work as a therapy?
Yeah, well… but after he is done painting he lights a cigarette. I think he prefers to draw them than smoking them, but he cannot avoid smoking them…. he likes smoke.
Is there anything you wold like to tell your brother that you don’t dare to tell him in person?
No… I always tell him everything to his face! That’s why he cannot stand me! (laughs) I tell him how he is and whatever I want to say to his face… some days I tell him he is a piece of crap and the following day I tell him I am sorry and that I love him…. well, I never really say I love him. That’s true (more laughs). Well… (thinking) I feel affection for him… I feel something!
Soon: The 2nd part: Tiñas by Pelucas himself.
Interview by: Zirus the virus.
April 3rd, 2006 11:52pm
Administrador
