Pelukas & Tiñas I
April 3rd, 2006
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.
Entry Filed under: Artists
