Ed Hall

banner: a flag or other piece of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or other message.

May Day march, London, 2008. Courtesy of Ed Hall

In the past, banners have been mainly used for processions in a religious context. Nowadays as the banners usually hang on the walls of churches, religious processions tend to fade away. You can still find some revival in the French region of Brittany with the so-called pardon. This kind of pilgrimage has some celtic origin and happens on the occasion of main religious celebrations such as the Assumption on the 15th of August. On the same day the unconventional bikers pardon takes place in Porcaro. Established in 1979 by abbot Prévoteau -a biker himself- in order to celebrate Fatima and the bikers’ guild, this event is now gathering 20 000 people each year in the small village of Brittany. Although quite different from the current social parades, pardons are also events involving people sharing a mutual cause or celebration.

According to Dr Myna Trustram, organisations in the UK that have a marching tradition have made banners for centuries in order to identify themselves. This includes trade unions, friendly societies, temperance groups, co-operative societies, Orange orders, suffrage, women’s and peace organisations and political parties, but also non-political organisations like churches, chapels and Sunday schools. Mines, mills, factories or messages are part of the traditional iconography.

May Day march, London, 2008. Courtesy of Ed Hall

London, Thursday 21 January. It is almost 11:00 AM and I have an appointment with Ed Hall, the famous banner maker. He has been designed and created banners for more than twenty years for ‘organisations committed to social and political causes‘. Some of his work is now among the Folk Archive and part of the British Council collection. An important retrospective of his banners has been displayed on the occasion of From One Revolution To Another, the show curated by Jeremy Deller and collaborators at the Palais de Tokyo in 2008. Nearly 40 of them were hanging in the gallery.

A little early on the schedule, I watch with an amused eye a typical Trafalgar Square scene: tourists taking snapshots of themselves with the four lion statues guarding Nelson’s Column. As expected, Ed is on time.

The following conversation took place at Maison Bertaux, a famous tea house à la Française in the presence of two cups of tea, an apple crumble and a giant chocolate éclair.

Tell me about yourself
I started work as an Architect in 1968 and I became involved with trade union work when my Department was threatened with closure under Margaret Thatcher. I became a trade union official and began to make posters and banners. In the last three years I have been able to exhibit work in some beautiful venues, including the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
As an Architect I worked in the public sector, for Liverpool, Greenwich and Lambeth. My work was mainly housing, including at the old Tudor Dockyard in Woolwich and a large site of new houses in Brixton. I also designed a Health Centre and a small shopping mall.

What inspires you?
It started of with very basic trade union causes: people having proper conditions to work in, or political causes where people had been hurt by the police or forcedly imprisoned or have relatives who died in police custody. Although those causes have an impact on very few people, I think they are important causes. Anyone of us can get caught up in one of these incidents or trade union disputes.

How long does it take for you to make one banner?
The ones I am making at the moment which are combinations of sewing, appliqué work and painting are about a hundred hours for each banner. That does not mean to say working seven hours a day. I often start at seven and finish at eleven.

Procession, Deansgate’s Manchester, 5th July 2009.
Organised by Jeremy Deller for the Manchester International Festival
The Big Issue magazine is sold by homeless and vulnerably housed people to make them earn a legitimate income

What is a typical day of work?
I get up as early as I possibly can. The morning for me is the best moment. If I have to paint something or think hard about something, it is always in the morning. In the afternoon I try to do less demanding things like straightforward sewing, making the pose or sewing banners together but I think most people find that in the afternoon the motivation fails a little bit.

What are your projects?
Well I have been lucky in working on behalf of Jeremy Deller and other exhibition work. But my ordinary work is still producing trade union banners which I now have quite a backlog about two years! I am now trying to catch up with this backlog and complete the ones I have promised. And I have a long way behind.
The organisation called the British Council which has spent 75 years buying British artworks. The objective of the British Council is to spread British music, arts, culture in the wide world. They have a collection of paintings which they are showing at the Minsheng Art Gallery in Shanghai; I think as a fore runner to the forthcoming Expo 2010 taking place in Shanghai.
The British Council bought the Folk Archive which Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane have put together and which included some of my banners. And because it now belongs to the British Council, they are taking it to Shanghai. They have also asked me to provide other banners, about twenty of them which I believe will hang in an high space in the Minsheng Art Gallery.

How important is art in your life?
It is very important. I was an architect. I think the English are remarkably ignorant about design and the arts. I mean if you look at countries like France or Sweden where art seems to be part of their lives. In England it is completely separated, art is often ridiculed and people do not really value it very much. I think designing things and putting ideas into a visual form are very important.

Could you review your work in a critical way?
Some things I do were very successfully. There have been things I have done which have not worked very well. I admire painters like Diego Velázquez and Toulouse-Lautrec as they could draw hands, faces and hairstyle easily. I would just love to have that skill: drawing figures in an easy direct way. I would give anything to be able to have that skill!

What is your dream?
I have to say, I am in a very fortunate position. I love doing very prestigious things and that entrance banner on the Palais de Tokyo was a dream. How many people get the chance to have something they have made hanging in a big public gallery in Paris? If I can have any more of that kind of thing, that is my dream.

From One Revolution To Another, Palais de Tokyo, 26 Sept 2008 – 18 Jan 2009
Ana Lopez works with sex workers to demand trade union recognition and safety. This banner was used in Soho, Central London

Did you fulfill your childhood dreams?
The only way I can answer that is, if my life stops now I would be quite satisfied. I have no great unrealistic dreams. I am not gonna compose the Fifth Symphony or paint some day like Rembrandt. I think people must recognize their limitation and be realistic. I am not smug or self satisfied though. The last two or three years I have been extremely pleased about what was happening to me.

What do you see for yourself in ten years?
If people are working hard and producing things, well they like some recognition for  working hard and the things they have made, that people can enjoy and look at. If some more of the recognition took place, I would be extremely happy.

What epitaph on your grave?
There should be no sentimentality about people dying. When they are gone, they are gone, you know. Very few people in the world have never die because they left something so important that you could not say ‘Oscar Wilde is dead’ or ‘Toulouse-Lautrec is dead’ because they live on through their work. I think there must come a point when the last banner I made gets parade in public – and it might be hundred of years after I died! – but when the last banner is used in the street or whatever, then I will take this as the epitaph. (laughs)

ABOUT FOLK ARCHIVE:
Currently on view at the Minsheng Art Gallery, Shanghai: The Future Demands Your Participation
28 January – 21 March 2010
British Council
http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts-aad-folk-archive.htm

Jeremy Deller & Alan Kane, Folk Archive: Contemporary Popular Art from the UK, Book Works, 2005, 3rd edition, 2008

ABOUT BANNERS:
Books:
Hazel Edwards, Follow the Banner: An Illustrated Catalogue of the Northumberland Miners’ Banners, Carcanet Press, 1997
John Gorman, Banner Bright: an Illustrated History of Trade Union Banners, Penguin Books Ltd, 1986

Museums:
Pump House: People’s History Museum, Manchester
http://www.phm.org.uk
The People’s Story Museum, Edinburgh
http://www.culture24.org.uk/sc000138

Yuko Nasu

‘To draw someone we do not know, who might be someone special is my interest‘
Yuko Nasu

Imaginary Portrait Series, 2006, oil on paper, 18 pieces (50 x 40 cm each). Courtesy of Yuko Nasu

Born in Hiroshima, Japan.
Lives and works in London.

She studied visual design at Kyoto City University of Art until 1997. She used to work as a graphic designer but soon realised that she wanted to do more physical work than being in front of a computer all day long.
She eventually relocated to London in 2005 to study fine art at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.
Yuko Nasu makes portraits. It includes mostly oil painting but sometimes it can also be water colour.
She uses wild brushstrokes and unique colour combinations work to create a camouflage that reveals its subject. Her technique and its effects may remind Edward Munch’s The Scream where the brushstrokes are sweeping and becoming broader. The features of the face are almost removed, what is left is a trace of a mouth or an eye. We cannot say the works look ‘unfinished‘ though, it is rather that Yuko sees only the essential. We are not quite sure if some erasing is in process.
She had her first UK solo show Imaginary Portraits at Zizi Gallery in 2007. Last year she gained some media attention with a portrait of Kate Moss (KM2), although she stated to be ‘unfamiliar with the cultural references or celebrities in contemporary British media stories‘.
She was exhibiting at Art Projects during the last London Art Fair (13-17 January 2010).

Imaginary Portrait Series, KM2, 2009, oil on paper, 50 x 40 cm. Courtesy of Yuko Nasu

I was in London some time ago and I met Yuko on this occasion. The following discussion took place at her studio.

Tell me about yourself
I graduated in visual design at University. I was making posters, advertisements etc. Then I got a job at a TV game company in Japan, I was a 3D, computer graphic designer. I worked there during five years, but I was really bored, working with computers and digital things you know. I was thinking, ‘I would like to do something different, and use my hands to produce something more organic‘. So I quitted the company and I decided to come to the UK. I applied to Saint Martins College. I managed to get in and I studied for one year. Then I took a one-year class at Chelsea College of Art and Design as an international postgraduate. I finished in 2007 and I became an independent artist.

When did you start being interested in painting?
I already liked painting when I was a kid but I was not really serious about it, it was just for fun. I really started to think about painting when I was working for the TV game company. From that time I got interested in arts in general.

What inspires you?
It depends. Basically all that is energetic: it can be music for instance.

How long does it take for you to make one painting?
Sometimes it takes me a month or even more. But I can also make one painting in about fifteen minutes or less. I would say it depends on if I’m lucky or not!

Do you sometimes get back to your work to modify something -a detail?
Once it is done, I do not get back to it. Otherwise I could ruin the painting.

Imaginary Portrait Series, Y, 2007, oil on paper, 50 x 40 cm. Courtesy of Yuko Nasu

What is a typical day of work?
I have a part time job, three days a week, so I am able to dedicate to my work on the evening sometimes. I have a studio so I spend basically the whole day painting when I am not working. I would come in the morning and I would stay until 8:00 PM. Then I go back home. But there is no rule.

What are your projects?
I just exhibited at London Art Fair. Right now I would like to experiment something different, I have been painting the same way for quite some time. I think it is time for a change. For the past year I have been painting in a different way, more abstract. It does not have a title yet.

How important is art in your life?
We cannot live without art, can we? (laughs).
More seriously I am happy when I am painting.

Could you review your work in a critical way?
That is a difficult question… Looking at my work in an objective way is something I am not sure to be able of doing. Maybe I would say my work is getting more sophisticated. And at the same time it is loosing some primitive expression I suppose. As I am becoming better at painting, I have to be cautious not to loose the primitive energy. Otherwise my work could become boring.

1108b, 2009, oil on paper. Courtesy of Yuko Nasu

What is your dream?
I would like to retire in Hawaii when I turn sixty or seventy! Why not?
More seriously, my current dream would be to become a successful artist.

Did you fulfill your childhood dreams?
Growing up I wanted to be a lawyer. I found myself being fascinated with people working in politics or business, all the executive people you know. But I doubt I will fulfill that dream and I like this idea somehow. I prefer to be a painter, working with colours and canvases.

What do you see for yourself in ten years?
I have no idea. I cannot tell exactly what I will be doing in ten years. I wish I could stay in London or at least in Europe. Japanese and European cultures are totally different. There are so many ways of thinking here. But I think I will eventually go back to Japan someday.

What epitaph on your grave?
Rest In Peace? (laughs). We do not have this tradition in Japan. There are no inscription on the grave. We keep ashes in graves, in the past we buried dead bodies but nowadays we do not. I do not want to have my grave and I want my ashes to be thrown in the air or in the ocean. I wanna be nothing after death. It might be a sad thing to my parents because keeping ashes and having a grave is a traditional way for any family in Japan.

website:
http://yukonasu.com/

Shelf at Yuko’s studio. Picture by the author.

Christian Boltanski

Mardi 12 janvier, environ 20 heures. Vernissage de Personnes, le projet réalisé par Christian Boltanski pour MONUMENTA. Une foule assez chic va et vient devant l’entrée du Grand Palais. Les uns arrivent au vernissage, les autres en sortent, téléphone ou cigarette à la main. Une fois le carton d’invitation remis et les contrôles passés, c’est un mur de tiroirs qui nous fait face, imposant. Il empêche de voir l’intérieur de la nef et oblige le spectateur à le contourner par un côté ou par un autre. A l’intérieur, un vaste champ de vêtements. Ils sont posés à même le sol, organisés par petites sections carrées, qui rythment la déambulation du visiteur.

Plus loin, c’est un gigantesque tas de vêtements qui attire l’attention. Il est surmonté d’un bras mécanique qui pioche de temps à autre une poignée d’effets et les relâche aussitôt sur le tas. Le spectacle est saisissant.
On se sent ridiculement minuscule. C’est un fait, la nef du Grand Palais impressionne par ses dimensions :
longueur 200 m, largeur 50 m et 100 m, hauteur 35 m et 45 m sous le dôme, pour une superficie de 13 500 m2.
Au dehors, le froid est glacial. Pourtant Boltanski n’a pas souhaité chauffer l’endroit. “Cette installation est conçue pour produire un puissant sentiment d’oppression. Il s’agit d’une expérience dure et je suis convaincu que les gens éprouveront un soulagement en sortant.”

Si l’installation a été pensée pour se déployer principalement sur le sol, à l’horizontale donc, tout l’espace en revanche résonne de manière lancinante au son d’enregistrements de battements de coeur.
Ce bruit fait écho à un projet initié à la Maison Rouge en 2008, Les Archives du cœur. On y accède en empruntant un petit couloir, à l’écart de la nef. Les visiteurs sont invités à enregistrer le son des battements de leur cœur et d’en faire don à l’artiste. L’ensemble sera réuni dans une sonothèque sur l’île de Teshima, située dans la Mer Intérieure du Japon et mise à la disposition de Boltanski par un mécène.
Chaque année pour MONUMENTA, un artiste de renommée internationale imagine un projet original de grande envergure pour la nef du Gand Palais. Anselm Kiefer s’était prêté à l’exercice en 2007, puis ce fut le tour de Richard Serra l’année suivante.

Le Grand Palais
Conçu à l’occasion de l’Exposition Universelle de 1900 par Henri Deglane, Albert Louvet, Albert Thomas et Charles Girault, le Grand Palais est un fleuron de l’Art Nouveau. Cet édifice monumental se caractérise par une architecture alliant la pierre, l’acier et le verre.

Personnes, Grand Palais, du 13/01 au 21/02/2010
A l’initiative du Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication et de la Délégation aux Arts Plastiques. Une exposition coproduite par le Centre National des Arts Plastiques, le Grand Palais et la Réunion des Musées Nationaux.

site de MONUMENTA :
http://www.monumenta.com/2010/

Benjamin Sabatier

Benjamin Sabatier’s recent show at the Point Ephémère, Paris was titled Manifeste.
You could see the exhibition space from the outside through a large window. White placards with messages were displayed against one of the walls. These messages were collected in various public toilets in the city and the recording was the ceaseless flow of a flush.
The placards are usually used in the public sphere to express demands during protests; for the show they recorded a series of anonymous messages left in an intimate place. Benjamin Sabatier refers to the placards as screens, showing some odd collective word with a sense of humour.

Manifeste, exhibition view at the Point Ephémère, from 13 November to 08 December 2009

Benjamin Sabatier in conversation with Adeline Wessang

Background?
I graduated from Rennes 2 University with a postgraduate certificate and an aggregation in Arts, which also allows me to be a teacher. I’m teaching at La Sorbonne and I’m also involved with the CERAP (center of studies and research in Arts).

DIY?
I want my work to be accessible, it is very important. It is part of what I call the ‘aesthetics of the viewer’. When confronted to my work, the viewer is not in virgin territory: he sees things he knows about because he sees them regularly but this time they are displayed in unusual positions and combinations.
To me, art is a transcription of the real, a way of looking at the world around us. Indeed art allows to access the real in an unusual way. The beginning point does exist concretely: materials, objects or processes that everyone is supposed to know. Then they are used in a different way in order to show some specific aspects and to include the viewer as one of the modalities for the work.
The fact that my work is usually ‘reproducible’ is also a ‘way of doing’, not far from what we call ‘Do It Yourself’.
Besides, a part of my work fully includes reproducibility and is displayed in the form of kits. It seems usually ‘reproducible’ because you can easily imitate the pieces.

Rondin Les 3 Suisses II, 2004
mail order catalogue and half log, 25 cm height, 41,7 cm diameter
Courtesy of Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont

The viewer can say ‘I could do it myself’, and he is right.
DIY means ‘Faîtes-le vous-même’ in French and I think that it is not only some activity you do on Sundays. It is a true way of thinking, referring to hippies’ utopiae from the 1960s. All the counter culture from the next decades comes from that. The French translation for DIY Faîtes-le-vous-même is more appropriate than bricolage or système D.
It is also a way of doing hand made things, finding again some autonomy and being more manual. I am referring to the Whole Earth catalog (Access to tools), first released in 1968. It was the first mail-order catalogue, written by Stewart Brand and it has quickly become the counter culture bible in the US.
The book is not only a catalogue of tools, it is also filled with visionary ideas and articles about Earth protection, bio farming, self-sufficiency, self-education, cooperation…
DIY philosophy is in progress. Not only it is a way of reducing costs but it is also an alternative to mass production. It is no accident that it is currently regaining across the Atlantic. It is supposed to be some kind of reaction to consumer society excesses and its dangerous effects on the planet. Moreover, it is a survival strategy when there is an economical crisis.

IBK?
I was looking for something which could involve the audience in the making. It was also a way of delegating to the audience some part of the work (DIY again). First I created a decorative pictorial pattern with pins stuck into the wall. Then I asked myself how I could distribute this work created onto a specific location. I ended up with a kit. This reproduction system quickly interested me more than the product itself. I was inspired by a firm like IKEA. I produced multilingual guides, I designed tools to make the assembling easier. Each object is edited in three copies. Two copies: the work and its reproduction. From three copies, I would say it is about editing with the concept of a product.
The kit questions about the work status as a merchandise, as well as the current functioning of consumption and the marketing strategies.

Installation de présentation du Kit
pins, cardboard box, instructions book, pattern and tools
Courtesy of Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont

Then I designed a logo: IBK (International Benjamin’s Kit). The name came to me naturally, with reference to IKEA and to Yves Klein’s IKB (International Klein Blue). He is to me one of the first artists who has thought about the market value in a relevant way. Let’s remember his show at the Apollinaire gallery, Milan in 1957. Eleven blue Monochrome were displayed, all the same size but at different selling prices. Klein thought the paintings were not exactly the same because they were perceived in a different way by the audience. The price is part of the work.
Of course IBK is also a reference to Walter Benjamin, whose name is similar to my first name.
IBK is more than a brand, it is a concept, a kind of vision which is related to DIY in my opinion.
IBK has also became a structure which produces things and allows to collaborate with people on different projects.

Entrepreneur?
For the past years I have been called an artiste entrepreneur. It is true that I do have my say on economy and business. But I am not an entrepreneur per say, such as famous artists like Jeff Koons or Takashi Murakami. IBK is not a firm, socially or economically speaking. It is more of a concept, a work of art in itself. But as IBK has some of the characteristics of a firm, I guess it is easier to say I am an entrepreneur.
I do not intend to pretend to be one (it has been done previously a lot by others) and I do not want to mimic current economic structures. I am not interested in mimesis or copy. I would also like to add that I am not attracted to this world, I am rather interested in the fact that it cannot be ignored because it is the main structure for individuals in current society.

Performances?
The relationship to the body is important in my work. I am also interested in the relationship with materials. This confrontation or association leads to produce shapes. Learning something is what I am looking for and I could say that I am challenging myself each time I am starting a project. I feel like I always gain some knowledge, which can be practical but more often critical. Then again DIY is not far.  Carrying rocks, piling Scotch-tapes, sticking nails, drawing pins, sharpening pencils… All my projects have repetitive gestures and you will not be surprised to learn that performance art is special to me.

The End, DIY 1388, 2008
hammer, nails, pattern, instructions book and cardboard box, 88 x 162 cm
Courtesy of Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont

In 2008 I performed at the MAK, Vienna. It was called SUPERPARTYCYCLES and I had a free hand. I wanted to turn this several-stages old bunker into some place for partying. On the last floor in an empty room I put 80kg of pallet (my own weight) covered with sheets of coloured paper. I was continually tearing up the sheets to make confetti. After a while, a few people in the audience imitated me by tearing up the paper sheets. The performance was working as long as more and more people were participating. The destructive gesture towards some manufactured material changed the performance into a party.
Long before the performance 35 Heures de travail (2002) at the Palais de Tokyo (I was entirely sharpening pencils manually during 35 hours), I produced some works involving sharpened pencils. Each one was then stored into a plastic bag mentioning the brand of the pencil. I put the bags at the supermarket so the consumer could buy his pencil already sharpened! That was the whole idea. The product was somehow already a waste in that context. The consumer became a viewer and gained some critical opinion towards mass consumption.
I dropped about fifty of these bags in various supermarkets.
I never saw someone actually staring at my bags, I never waited to see people’s reactions… But it does not matter. This project was indeed my first real performance…
I am interested in putting objects or products back in some different kind of consumption cycle or giving these things a second life. I’m thinking of Paul Auster’s In The Country of Last Things (1989) which French title is Le Voyage d’Anna Blume. Main characters are scavengers who survive by collecting garbage in a city that has collapsed into chaos and disorder. I was more interested in the title, referring to Kurt Schwitters’ An Anna Blume (1919), his book of poems and collages. This was the starting point for my thoughts on merchandise and packaging, further extended with kits.

Objects?
I collected squashed things in the street (Etalage, 2004). These flattened objects seemed to be images of merchandise to me.
They were not objects per say anymore, as they had lost their shape and their use at the same time. They had become two dimensional pictures, colored spots on the ground. I placed them into plaster blocks to make them look ‘marketable’ like bricks or boxes. Then I displayed them stacked on pallets as if they were average goods.
Later I purchased a large amount of objects in blister packaging. Blister is a rounded, bulging, usually transparent structure for display and protection of packaged products. I use blisters as molds and I pour cement inside. I did an Action Man series. It is all about packaging, box, carriage and merchandising the world and Art in general.

Action man I, 2007
Blisters series, cement, 30 x 22,5 x 10 cm
Courtesy of Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont

Recycling materials is interesting. A few years ago I used to keep mail order catalogues such as La Redoute or 3 Suisses for recycling. The reason I was collecting them was mainly because they don’t last. Plus I like when the materials are available in a large amount easily.
Sheets of the catalogues were stored in ice cubes boxes, each sheet in one single compartment. I was trying to focus on short-term preservation by reproducing seasonal advertising commonly used for these mail order catalogues: Fall/Winter, Spring/Summer. In the end, I think that the whole idea was also referring to the Whole Earth Catalog.

Bacs 019, 2005
Bacs series, ice cubes boxes, paper and wood, 95 x 95 cm
Courtesy of Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont

Packaging?
Yes indeed packaging is recurring in my work: bags, blisters, kits…
In contemporary art history the box cannot be ignored. I am thinking of Duchamp’s Boîte en Valise, Warhol’s Brillo Boxes, Manzoni’s used cans, Judd, Arman, Raynaud… It would be good to write a book on the subject.
I am still working on packaging. The box which protects and informs on its content at the same time, must be practical and a promotional material.
Right now I am more interested in its usage, that is to say carriage and stocking.
I fixed climbing grips to rocks (Prises, 2008). These colored grips usually allow the body to climb on the wall. The relationship to the body is somehow perverted since in that case, the grips allow to carry the object. I wanted to add some sort of ergonomics to it.
In a way, this project extends a part of work of art history which is said to have influenced the shape of the work of art. Take donkey painting for instance, it allowed paintings to be spread widely. It also demonstrated the connections between work of art and merchandise.

Typical day?
I spend some time on my computer, mainly sending emails, getting informed. The network matters. I have been in touch with artists from abroad. I can also work on projects from a distance, sending patterns by email allowing the work to be done without me. I like this circulation linked with ubiquity.
I do a lot of sketches. I put up them on a notice board in my studio, along with notes. Sometimes I can give up on some ideas then I will go back and make them happen. I do not work on a project if its achievement is not possible.
In the end I would say that I always focus on gathering and stocking.

Tableau n.3, 2008
felt-tip, pencil, pinned paper and wood, 150 x 150 cm
Courtesy of Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont

Projects?
I am currently working on a performance which will take place at Centre George Pompidou in February 2010.
I am also supposed to exhibit at Delicatessy gallery in Cracovia, Poland. Delicatessy refers to food shops, such as butcher shops. So the name has to do with merchandise and it is really interesting to me.
Moreover, I am currently focusing on projects involving brick as main material. Brick  does have attractive features: it is a module, made to fit in man’s hand, you can handle it easily for carrying. So we go back on the carriage thing, and the relationship with the body (previously discussed) and more specifically with the hand. In conclusion I would like to quote the essay written by art historian Henri Focillon L’Eloge de la Main (1934).

This interview has taken place in Benjamin’s studio on November 2009.

Benjamin Sabatier, born 1977.
Lives and works in Paris.

IBK:
http://www.ibk.fr/

Jérôme de Noirmont art gallery, Paris:
http://www.denoirmont.com/

Catalogues:
FRAGILE, Ville d’Issoire edition, 2008
S.A.V., Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont edition, 2005 (sold out)
Peinture en Kit, Noirmont Prospect edition, 2003 (sold out)

IBK’s Scotch Tower V, 2007
Scotch-tape rolls, concrete and PVC, 241.5 x 17 cm
Courtesy of Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont

Benjamin Sabatier (version française)

Au Point Ephémère, à Paris, se tenait récemment l’exposition Manifeste, une proposition de Benjamin Sabatier.
La salle d’exposition était visible depuis l’extérieur par une grande vitrine. Le long d’un des murs, on avait disposé des pancartes blanches sur lesquelles des messages étaient projetés. Ces messages avaient été récupérés dans diverses toilettes publiques de la ville et la bande sonore de l’écoulement continu d’une chasse d’eau emplissait l’espace.
Les pancartes, qui sont traditionnellement utilisées dans la sphère publique pour exprimer des revendications lors de manifestations, recueillaient ici une série de messages anonymes laissés dans un espace intime. Les panneaux sont envisagés par l’artiste comme des écrans de projection, accueillant une parole collective décalée et non dénuée d’humour.

Vue de l’exposition Manifeste, du 13 novembre au 08 décembre 2009 au Point Ephémère

Benjamin Sabatier en conversation avec Adeline Wessang

Parcours ?
J’ai étudié à l’université de Rennes 2, j’ai obtenu un DEA et une agrégation en Arts Plastiques, ce qui me permet d’être également enseignant. J’enseigne à Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne et où je fais partie du CERAP (Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches en Arts Plastiques).

DIY ?
Que mon travail soit accessible est une chose très importante pour moi. Cela fait partie de ce que j’appelle “l’esthétique du spectateur”. On peut dire que celui-ci se trouve, face à mes oeuvres, en terrain connu. Il est confronté à des choses qu’il connait bien, qu’il côtoie régulièrement mais dans des postures et des associations qui posent un certain nombre de questions.
L’art c’est pour moi une retranscription du réel, qui médiatise une manière de voir le monde. L’art est par là un accès singulier au réel. Le fait de partir d’un réel commun – que ce soit des matériaux, des objets ou des procédures, que tout un chacun est censé connaître et reconnaître- et de le réemployer afin d’en révéler certains aspects est une manière d’intégrer le spectateur comme l’une des modalités de l’oeuvre.
Que mes oeuvres soient dans l’ensemble “reproductibles”, c’est aussi une “manière de faire”, proche de ce que l’on appelle le “Do It Yourself”. D’ailleurs certaines de mes oeuvres intègrent totalement cette reproductibilité et se présentent sous forme de kits. Mais le plus souvent les oeuvres semblent “re-productibles” car elles sont facilement modélisables.

Rondin Les 3 Suisses II, 2004
catalogue de vente par correspondance et demi rondin de bois, hauteur : 25 cm, diamètre : 41,7 cm
Courtesy de la Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont

Le spectateur peut ainsi dire “moi aussi je peux le faire”, et il aura tout à fait raison.
Le DIY qui peut être traduit en français par “bricolage”,  n’est pas seulement pour moi, une activité à laquelle on s’adonne le dimanche. C’est plutôt un véritable mode de pensée, qui se réfère aux utopies Hippies des années soixante, dont toute la contre-culture des décennies suivantes est issue. En Français, la traduction littérale de DIY : Faites-le vous-même est plus porteuse que celles de simple bricolage ou système D.
C’est aussi une manière de faire “hand made” pourrait-on dire, qui est un moyen de retrouver une autonomie, une certaine “manualité”, face au réel contemporain, d’avoir prise sur lui.
Je pense ici au Whole Earth catalog, sous-titré Access to tools dont la première édition date de 1968. Ce catalogue de vente par correspondance, le premier du genre, inventé par Stewart Brand, est devenu très vite la bible de la contre-culture aux Etats-Unis.
Le catalogue n’est pas seulement un réservoir d’outils, il est aussi rempli d’idées visionnaires. On y trouve des articles sur la préservation de la planète, l’agriculture bio, l’autosuffisance, l’auto éducation, la coopération…
La philosophie du DIY est une pensée en devenir. C’est en premier lieu un moyen de réduire les coûts mais c’est aussi un moyen de proposer une alternative à la production de masse. Ce n’est pas un hasard si elle fait un retour en force outre Atlantique. Elle est considérée comme une réaction aux excès de la société de consommation et ses effets dévastateurs sur la planète mais elle est surtout en période de crise une stratégie de survie.

IBK ?
Je cherchais à produire une oeuvre qui impliquait le spectateur, qu’il puisse s’investir réellement dans la fabrication. C’était également un moyen de lui déléguer une partie de l’oeuvre (encore le concept du DIY). Dans un premier temps j’ai créé une forme picturale décorative avec des punaises plantées directement au mur. Je me suis ensuite demandé par quels moyens je pourrai diffuser cette oeuvre réalisée in situ. J’ai donc proposé cette oeuvre en kit. Ce système de reproduction m’a intéressé très vite davantage que l’objet produit lui-même. Je me suis inspiré du mode de fonctionnement d’une entreprise telle que IKEA, en éditant des systèmes de montage multilingues, en créant des outils conçus pour faciliter le montage. Chaque objet est diffusé par série de trois. Un objet édité en deux exemplaires, c’est l’oeuvre et sa reproduction. A partir de trois, je dirais que c’est une pratique proche de l’édition, avec le concept de produit.
Le Kit interroge le statut de l’oeuvre d’art en tant que marchandise ainsi que le fonctionnement contemporain de la consommation et des stratégies marketing afférantes.

Installation de présentation du Kit
punaises, boîte en carton, manuel de montage, patron et outils
Courtesy de la Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont

J’ai ensuite créé un logo : IBK (International Benjamin’s Kit). Le nom m’est venu assez naturellement, en référence à IKEA donc, et également à Yves Klein et à son IKB (International Klein Blue). Il est, pour moi, l’un des premiers artistes qui pose d’une manière pertinente la question de la valeur marchande de l’oeuvre d’art; rappelons cette exposition qui a lieu à la Galerie Apollinaire à Milan en 1957, pour laquelle il présentait onze monochromes bleus de taille identique à des prix différents. Selon lui, les toiles n’étaient pas exactement les mêmes, car appréciées de manière différente par le public. Le prix fait partie intégrante de l’oeuvre.
Bien évidemment, le choix du nom est aussi une référence à Walter Benjamin, dont le nom se confond avec mon prénom.
Plus qu’une marque, IBK est avant tout un concept, une sorte de vision, que je rapproche du concept de DIY.
IBK est devenu aussi une structure de production qui permet de travailler collectivement sur différents projets.

L’artiste entrepreneur ?
Depuis quelques années, on a tendance à me ranger dans la catégorie de l’artiste entrepreneur. S’il est vrai que j’ai un regard particulier sur la question de l’économie et de l’entreprise, je ne suis pas un entrepreneur à proprement parler, comme peuvent l’être certains méga-artistes contemporains, tels Jeff Koons ou Takashi Murakami. IBK n’est pas une entreprise, dans le sens où on l’entend dans la réalité sociale et économique, c’est davantage un concept, ou une oeuvre à part entière. Mais dans la mesure où IBK adopte certains codes de l’entreprise et les met en jeux il est facile de le réduire à un questionnement sur celle-ci.
Mon but à travers cela n’est surtout pas de rejouer, une énième fois, au chef d’entreprise ni de mimer le fonctionnement des structures économiques actuelles. Je ne suis pas dans la mimésis, copier ou représenter la réalité ne m’intéresse pas.
Je tiens aussi à dire que je n’ai aucune fascination pour cet univers. Il m’intéresse simplement par le fait qu’il est aujourd’hui une figure incontournable qui structure l’individu dans la société.

Performances ?
Tout mon travail s’intéresse au rapport au corps et par là même, d’un geste à une matière ou à des matériaux.  Cette confrontation ou cette association amenant à la production de formes. L’idée de l’apprentissage n’est pas étrangère et je pourrais dire qu’à chaque fois que je m’attelle à une nouvelle oeuvre, je me lance une sorte de défi. Et il en sort toujours une connaissance, qui peut être simplement pratique mais souvent s’avère critique. Là encore, le DIY n’est pas loin.
Porter des rochers, empiler les rouleaux de scotch, planter des clous, des punaises, tailler des crayons… Les gestes répétitifs sont présents dans tous mes projets… et ce n’est pas une surprise si la performance est un medium particulier pour moi.

The End, DIY 1388, 2008
marteau, clous, patron, manuel de montage et boîte en carton, 88 x 162 cm
Courtesy de la Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont

J’ai effectué une performance en 2008 lors d’une exposition au MAK de Vienne intitulée SUPERPARTYCYCLES. L’institution m’avait donné carte blanche.
Je souhaitais transformer momentanément cette institution qui est un ancien bunker de plusieurs étages en un lieu festif. Au dernier étage de celui-ci dans une immense salle vide, j’avais disposé une palette de 80 kg (mon propre poids) de feuilles de papier de différentes couleurs que je déchirais de manière continue, pour en faire des confettis.  Au bout d’un certain temps, des spectateurs m’ont imité et ont également commencé à s’attaquer aux blocs de feuilles en les déchirant. L’installation, et par là la performance, fonctionnait tant qu’il y avait des gens pour l’animer.
Par un geste destructeur vis-à-vis d’une matière sortie de l’usine, l’action s’est véritablement transformée en fête.
Bien avant la réalisation de la performance 35 Heures de travail (2002), présentée au Palais de Tokyo (ou je taillais entièrement et manuellement des crayons de papier pendant 35 heures), j’ai produit une série d’oeuvres à partir de crayons taillés ou épluchés entièrement. Chaque crayon était ensuite placé dans un sachet plastique sur lequel j’apposais une étiquette portant la marque du crayon ainsi que ses caractéristiques. Je replaçais ensuite le tout dans les rayons de supermarché, ce qui symbolisait la possibilité du consommateur d’acheter directement son crayon entièrement taillé. La marchandise pointait dans l’espace marchand son devenir de déchet. Ce qui pouvait déjà représenter pour le consommateur devenu spectateur le premier pas vers un regard critique envers la consommation de masse, envers ce qu’on peut lui vendre.
J’ai déposé une cinquantaine des ces sachets dans différents Super et Hyper.
Il faut ajouter que je n’ai jamais vu un consommateur s’arrêter devant mes sachets, je n’ai jamais attendu pour voir les réactions… Mais je ne suis pas sûr que cela soit vraiment important.
En fait, cette expérience était ma première véritable performance… On peut associer cela à une sorte d’actionnisme, comme lorsque l’on parle d’actionnisme politique.
Réintégrer des objets ou des produits dans un cycle de consommation ou redonner une seconde vie aux objets m’intéresse. Je pense ici au titre d’un ouvrage écrit par Paul Auster : Le Voyage d’Anna Blume (1989). Les principaux personnages, des chiffonniers, survivent au sein d’une société anéantie en ramassant des déchets. Ce n’est pas l’ouvrage qui m’intéressait particulièrement, mais davantage son titre, qui est une référence directe à Kurt Schwitters et son recueil de poèmes et collages : An Anna Blume (1919). Cela marque le début de ma réflexion sur la question de la marchandise et de l’emballage, que j’ai poursuivi avec les œuvres en kit.

Objets ?
J’ai collecté une série d’emballages trouvés dans la rue qui avaient la particularité d’être écrasés (Etalage, 2004). Ces objets aplatis me sont apparus comme des images de la marchandisation, des représentations de celle-ci.
Ils n’étaient plus des objets à proprement parler, ils avaient perdu leur forme et leur fonction. Ils étaient devenus des images bidimensionnelles, des tâches colorées sur le sol. J’ai ensuite intégré ces divers emballages dans des blocs de plâtre afin de leur donner un aspect “commercialisable”, comme des briques ou des boîtes. Pour pouvoir notamment les réintégrer à un circuit marchand. Je les ai d’ailleurs exposé superposés les uns aux autres sur des palettes de transport comme de simples marchandises à consommer.
Dans une série suivante, j’ai acheté une importante quantité d’objets vendus sous blister en magasin. Le blister est la coque thermoformée qui emballe l’objet afin de le protéger. Il en épouse grossièrement la forme et permet de voir l’objet car il est généralement transparent. J’utilise ces blisters comme moules et j’y coule du ciment. J’ai notamment réalisé une série d’Action man. Cela s’inscrit bien évidemment dans ce questionnement sur l’emballage, la boîte, le transport et de manière plus générale, la marchandisation du monde et de l’art.

Action man I, 2007
série Blisters, ciment, 30 x 22,5 x 10 cm
Courtesy de la Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont

Je m’intéresse également aux matériaux de récupération. Il y a quelques années, je conservais les catalogues de vente par correspondance tels que La Redoute, 3 Suisses etc. que je recyclais en œuvres. Je les collectai au départ principalement  parce qu’ils ont une durée de vie très courte et sont par cela, disponibles rapidement en grand nombre. Ce qui est souvent la première chose qui attire mon attention sur une classe d’objets : il faut que la matière première soit disponible facilement et en grande quantité.
Des assemblages de bacs à glaçons servaient à contenir des pages de ces catalogues, à raison d’une feuille par compartiment. Il s’agissait ici d’évoquer, par un même geste, l’idée d’une conservation à court terme qui affichait sous un aspect pictural, le travail publicitaire des graphistes selon les différentes saisons : automne-hiver, printemps-été, caractéristiques de ces catalogues de VPC.
Cette idée d’utiliser des catalogues de vente par correspondance n’était d’ailleurs pas sans rapport référentiel au Whole Earth Catalog.

Bacs 019, 2005
série Bacs, bacs à glaçons, papier et bois, 95 x 95 cm
Courtesy de la Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont

Packaging ?
Oui l’emballage est un terme qui revient beaucoup dans mon travail : les sachets, les blisters, les kits…
La boîte est d’ailleurs une figure incontournable de l’histoire de l’art du XXe siècle.
Je pense à la Boîte en Valise de Duchamp, mais aussi à Warhol et ses Brillo Boxes, à Manzoni qui utilise des boîtes de conserve, Judd, Arman, Raynaud…  Enfin il serait intéressant d’écrire un livre à ce sujet.
Je continue de travailler et de questionner cette notion de packaging. Cette boîte qui protège et doit informer sur ce qu’elle contient. Elle doit être fonctionnelle et informationnelle, et dans le même temps elle est un support publicitaire.
En ce moment je m’intéresse davantage à sa fonctionnalité; la boîte servant à faciliter le transport, à protéger et à stocker les marchandises qu’elle contient.
Sur une série de rochers (Prises, 2008), j’ai fixé des prises d’escalade, ces mêmes prises colorées qui servent normalement à porter le corps sur le mur d’entrainement. Le rapport au corps est donc détourné puisqu’ici, ce sont ces prises qui permettent de transporter l’objet. Je voulais associer à ces rochers une certaine ergonomie. Comme si l’oeuvre d’art intégrait, à ses possibles transports et déplacements, des questions très pragmatiques, comme lorsque l’on doit déménager son frigo.
Il prolonge quelque part tout un pan de l’histoire de l’oeuvre d’art qui influencerait la forme de l’oeuvre. La création du tableau de chevalet, par exemple, qui a permis de faciliter le transport et les transactions des images peintes, est une manifestation matérielle forte des relations qu’entretiennent l’oeuvre d’art et la marchandise. Dans cette perspective, l’art aurait tout à voir avec le capitalisme marchand et son fonctionnement.

Journée type ?
Je passe beaucoup de temps sur l’ordinateur, pour communiquer, c’est-à-dire envoyer des mails, m’informer. Le réseau est très important, j’ai pu être mis en contact avec des artistes qui sont à l’étranger par exemple. Je peux également développer des projets à distance, en envoyant un patron par e-mail et l’oeuvre peut ainsi être réalisée sans que je me déplace. Cela me permet de multiplier les projets sans avoir à être présent physiquement. J’aime beaucoup cette idée de diffusion qui permet véritablement le don d’ubiquité.
Je dessine énormément. J’ai un panneau dans mon atelier qui me permet d’afficher tous mes croquis, mes notes prises lors de mes lectures, des projets d’exposition. J’accumule ces dessins, qui expriment des idées, qui sont parfois abandonnées pour un temps, avant que j’y revienne pour décider leur réalisation concrète. A part certains projets particuliers qui n’ont pas besoin de lieu particulier pour s’actualiser,  je ne réalise pratiquement plus rien dans le vide. C’est seulement quand la proposition d’exposition est concrète que les oeuvres se matérialisent et que je me permets de passer à la réalisation.
Ce qui revient à poser des questions toujours hautement pratiques, et non sans importance dans mon travail,  celles de l’accumulation et du stockage.

Tableau n.3, 2008
feutre, crayon, papier punaisé et bois, 150 x 150 cm
Courtesy de la Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont

Projets ?
Je prépare actuellement une performance pour le Centre Pompidou qui se déroulera en février prochain.
J’ai aussi une exposition prévue à Cracovie en Pologne à la galerie Delicatessy pour 2010. Le nom de “Delicatessy” désigne normalement des magasins d’alimentation, de type charcuterie. Ce nom est donc lié au système marchand et m’intéresse particulièrement.
D’autre part, je suis actuellement en train de réfléchir à des projets utilisant la brique comme matériau principal. La brique présente des caractéristiques attrayantes : c’est un module, fabriqué pour épouser la forme de la main, on peut donc la manipuler facilement et la transporter. On revient là encore à la question du transport, mais surtout à une problématique plus générale qui est perceptible dans l’ensemble de ma production, c’est le rapport au corps, et à la main de manière plus spécifique. Je citerai en mot de conclusion l’essai de l’historien d’art Henri Focillon L’Eloge de la Main, paru en 1934.

Entretien réalisé en novembre 2009 à l’atelier de l’artiste.

“J’entreprends cet éloge de la main comme on remplit un devoir d’amitié. Au moment où je commence à écrire, je vois les miennes qui sollicitent mon esprit, qui l’entraînent. Elles sont là, ces compagnes inlassables, qui, pendant tant d’années, ont fait leur besogne, l’une maintenant en place le papier, l’autre multipliant sur la page blanche ces petits signes pressés, sombres et actifs. Par elles l’homme prend contact avec la dureté de la pensée. Elles dégagent le bloc. Elles lui imposent une forme, un contour et, dans l’écriture même, un style.”
Henri Focillon, introduction à L’Eloge de la Main (1934).

Benjamin Sabatier est né en 1977.
Il vit et travaille à Paris.

IBK :
http://www.ibk.fr/

Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Paris :
http://www.denoirmont.com/

Ouvrages monographiques :
FRAGILE, Édition ville d’Issoire, 2008
S.A.V., Édition Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, 2005 (épuisé)
Peinture en Kit, Édition Noirmont Prospect, 2003 (épuisé)

IBK’s Scotch Tower V, 2007
rouleaux de scotch divers, béton et PVC, 241,5 x 17 cm
Courtesy de la Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont

Kiki Lamers

Gorilla, 2007, huile sur toile, 100 x 80 cm, Courtesy de la galerie Annet Gelink

Kiki Lamers est une artiste peintre et photographe néerlandaise.
Elle réunit souvent les deux médiums dans son œuvre, en peignant notamment à partir de diapositives projetées sur la toile. Les sujets sont souvent des grands portraits d’enfants représentés de manière réaliste. Elle travaille avec une couche de peinture épaisse (peinture à l’huile principalement) enrichie par différents pigments.
En 2000, alors qu’elle vivait en Auvergne, elle a fait l’objet d’une procédure judiciaire pour corruption de mineurs de moins de quinze ans après avoir pris des photographies de nus d’enfants dans des positions jugées provoquées, suggestives, lascives ou obscènes. Elle et son conjoint qui avaient déposé les photos à développer chez un professionnel, ont été condamnés à huit mois de prison ferme et 5 000 € d’amende en août 2004 par le tribunal de grande instance de Cusset (Allier). Le 2 février 2005, la condamnation a été confirmée, mais transformée en prison avec sursis par la cour d’appel de Riom pour laquelle l’alibi artistique invoqué est sans pertinence. L’artiste a annoncé sa volonté de se pourvoir en cassation.
La galeriste parisienne Ghislaine Hussenot, qui avait exposé les oeuvres de Kiki Lamers il y a deux ans, dénonce un procès “grotesque“, estimant qu’il n’y a “pas le moindre soupçon de pornographie dans son travail“.

Untitled, 2009, huile sur toile, 95 x 85 cm, Courtesy de la galerie Annet Gelink

Cette histoire n’est pas sans rappeler l’affaire Présumés Innocents, d’après le titre d’une exposition présentée au CAPC de Bordeaux en 2000. Les trois commissaires de ce projet ont été récemment renvoyés devant le tribunal correctionnel de Bordeaux, alors que le Procureur de la République avait requis un non-lieu en 2008. Il leur est reproché d’avoir montré un certain nombre d’oeuvres d’artistes contemporains jugées “choquantes” qui auraient pu être vues par des mineurs, ceci malgré tous les dispositifs d’avertissement soigneusement mis en place. Ce sont les oeuvres des artistes suivants qui ont été incriminées : Elke Krystufek, Gary Gross, Ines van Lamsweerde, Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin, Ugo Rondinone, Marlene Dumas, Paul McCarthy, Carsten Höller, Robert Mapplethorpe, Eric Fischi, Mike Kelley, Matt Collishaw, Christian Boltanski, Cameron Jamie, Joseph Bourban, Wolfgang Tillmans. Au vu de la liste, force est de constater que ces oeuvres ont été montrées ou reproduites à de nombreuses reprises et qu’elles ne constituent en aucun cas un danger pour la jeunesse.

Kiki Lamers expose actuellement et jusqu’au 24 janvier 2010 à l’Institut Néerlandais à Paris, dans le cadre du prix Jordaan-Van Heek 2010. Ce prix, qui est décerné tous les trois ans par un jury indépendant depuis 1996, récompense un artiste contemporain qui vit et travaille aux Pays-Bas.

Née à Nimegue, Pays-Bas.
Vit et travaille à Rotterdam.
Sort diplômée de l’Académie Nationale des Beaux-Arts d’Amsterdam en 1992.
Représentée par la galerie Annet Gelink, à Amsterdam.
http://www.annetgelink.nl/

Ouvrage
Anna Tilroe & Dan Cameron, Kiki Lamers: Tender Age, Artimo Foundation Breda, 2002

Osamu Kanemura

Osamu Kanemura is often cited by Martin Parr as an influential photographer. His images of Tokyo in black and white are very graphic and show the city as a place of constant collisions, confusion and expansion.

Keihin Machine Soul, 20” x 24”, 1996, gelatin silver print

Street photography has widespread in the second half of the twentieth century mostly in Western countries. But Japanese photography is specific for its close relationship with the development of domestic camera companies like Nikon or Canon. This has lead in general to a strong interest in the technology of the medium rather than producing art.

Kanemura’s visual project is an urban portrait of Tokyo from within. We see endless narrow streets, a wide net of electric wires and street signs but also the fact that Tokyo is overcrowded. Some claustrophobic feeling emerges as the horizon line is not to be seen anywhere.

Tokyo, like most Asian cities, is a product of growth. After the Second World War, half of Tokyo was destroyed (equivalent to New York City area). However, pressing economic redevelopment and need of shelter didn’t allow central planners to create the new modern city that they had planned. Thus, the pre-war layout served as the basis for reconstruction: in other words, the city was rebuilt on its ruins. The government focused on infrastructure re-development to support the economy and the residential reconstruction was left to local actors. Slum-type housing, that evolved from village habitats, dominated most areas until 1960s.

Tokyo Swing, 20” x 24”, 1995, gelatin silver print

artist’s statement
Remove a device called ‘Understanding‘ from this world. ‘Understanding‘ is only able to understand that it can. Try to capture the images of the unimaginable left behind from the absence of understanding. Photograph is not a device that understands and translates the world but is a device that corresponds to the world without having to understand at all. Capturing images is not an act of accurately reproducing. Even if seen one hundred times the outline becomes ambiguous, untraceable, misleading only to be indefinitely mistaken. Exploding the outline. Abandon this outline, abandon this division.
Osamu Kanemura, 2007

1964 Born in Tokyo, Japan
1993 Graduate from Tokyo College of Photography

gallery:
http://www.amadorgallery.com/

Today’s Japan, 20” x 24”, 1995, gelatin silver print

Si Scott

‘I like to be very hands on with my work‘
Si Scott

Si Scott founded his studio in early 2006. He established his personal style in design, typography and art direction and has worked with a wide range of clients, including Nike, Orange, UNICEF and the BBC.
He always starts by picking a font and then he plays around with different page layouts. The next phase includes the use of fineliners to create the illustration.
His work is extensively done by hand.

Si Scott interviewed by Format Magazine

Can you tell us about your background, please?

Si Scott: I am originally from Leeds, and first studied Graphic Design at Leeds College of Art and Design before going on to study at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College. I have always drawn, for as long as I can remember, in one form or another! I didn’t really know what design was when I was at school as there was no such thing as design. It was just “art & design,” and that was pretty much it as far as studying anything creative went. There certainly weren’t any computers either! Leaving school and attending Art College (and discovering design) was like some kind of revelation to me–-it really opened my eyes to all the different possibilities and ways to apply creativity.

Is your work primarily done by hand or is it a mix of hand drawing and computer art?

I’d say my work is ninety percent hand and ten percent other methods – such as the computer for coloring, etc. I also use paint quite a lot.

You do a variety of graphic art, but it’s safe to assume that your passion is typography. What is it about typography that you love so much?

I really don’t know what it is about typography that I like so much – the obvious reasons are just typography’s forms: the endless possibilities regarding what you can do with it. I never wanted to emulate somebody else’s style; that doesn’t interest me at all. I was always striving to do my own thing! Whilst most people were using computers at college, I was in the print room playing around with letterpress, screen-printing etc.

Over the last few years there has certainly been a movement involving the sort of ornate typography you lean towards. Your work has even been credited with playing a part in why this movement initially happened, and I’m wondering–is it more flattering or frustrating to know that your style of work was adopted by hundreds of graphic designers?

It’s a bit of both I guess-–I can understand why some people choose to adopt other people’s style of work, but on the other hand, it also baffles me a little bit. I think design has become quite lazy of late. Especially with the computer playing such a dominant role, it can be quite easy to just bash something together. I really like looking at design and thinking: that attention to detail must have taken absolutely ages.

The difference between your work and the work that has resulted from it within the design community is that yours is incredibly complex and ornate. How long do you generally work on each piece? 
It’s like…how long is a piece of string?

It totally depends on what it is: size, format, etc. I do find it really hard sometimes to estimate how long something will take. I’m getting better though.

You’ve mentioned how you are very inspired by music; what are some of your current favorite sounds?

Interpol, Bjork, Tycho, The Charlatans, Tom Waits, Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I could go on all day. I should just say that there are too many to mention, I guess!

Aside from music, where do you find inspiration for your art? Is it an internal reaction to your love of words, or a combination of that mixed with outside influences?

I think it is just a reaction to words-–most of my ideas come from words in one form or another! And due to the fact that I am constantly listening to music, I mostly just seem to be influenced by lyrics.

You recently opened up a studio with Kerry Roper called We Are Bitch. What are you hoping to achieve with this new company, and how’s it going so far?

It was just an idea we had in the pub one night (beer idea)! I’ve known Kerry for quite a long time now, but We Are Bitch isn’t really a studio, it’s just a drunken idea between friends. Neither of us have the time to really pursue it properly. Hopefully, we will be able to work together on something.

Si Scott lives and works in Manchester, UK.

website:
http://www.siscottstudio.com/

Genesis P-Orridge

‘Destroy all stereotypes‘

Who is Genesis P-Orridge?
“Pushing the boundaries” could have been his motto. Artist, musician, performer and writer, born Neil Andrew Megson in Manchester, England in 1950.
He attended a private school where he immersed himself in literature, discovering the beatniks, Surrealism and particularly Dada. Then he studied Psychology, Sociology and Philosophy at the University of Hull. It was during these years that the character of Genesis P-Orridge appeared. He released his first pressed recording Early Worm in 1968 under the name Genesis P-Orridge.

E Crazy Genius, 1977, letter, Crane/Friedman Correspondence Art Collection

In the late 60s and early 70s he was involved with COUM Transmissions, a performance art group heavily influenced by Dada. Their actions were overly sexually based, dealing with taboos and transgressions. It often included masturbation and having sex. The other major figure was Cosey Fanni Tutti, stripper and model for pornographic films. She incorporated her own image into collages she made in this period, investigating self-image.
In 1971, Genesis was already corresponding with Beat Generation writer William S. Burroughs, who introduced him to artist Brion Gysin. Burroughs and Gysin had worked out the cut-up method which consists of cutting up and reassembling various fragments of sentences to give them a completely new and unexpected meaning. The cut-up has been a major influence for Genesis P-Orridge who has tried to deconstruct and reconstruct his own character, according to the cut-up method.
At some point, Genesis wanted to introduce sound in the performances and COUM morphed into Throbbing Gristle around 1975.

Throbbing Gristle, 1980, London, UK (photo: Industrial Records Ltd.)

The four members wanted the name ugly and having nothing to do with music: Throbbing Gristle is a slang term for erection. According to Genesis, the band was not about rock ‘n’ roll, but rather an empirical research he accomplished without reservation.
In 1976 the Prostitution show at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in London caused debate in Parliament. P-Orridge and Tutti were proclaimed as “Wreckers of Civilisation“. The show displayed Tutti’s pornographic images from magazines, used Tampax in glass and included a stripper, transvestite guards and various people such as punks, people in costumes who were hired to mingle with the gallery audience.

Psychic TV was formed in 1981 with Alex Fergusson and long-time partner Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson (he was involved in both COUM and Throbbing Gristle). Prior to his musical career, Christopherson was a designer and photographer. He later directed music videos for Marc Almond, Paul McCartney, Rage Against the Machine and Nine Inch Nails amongst many others.
Psychic TV performed electronic and experimental music. The band released many albums with a large amount of contributors (Coil, Soft Cell, Derek Jarman, Timothy Leary, The Cult…) and even earned an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for most records released in one year. In 1992, Genesis and his family moved to California. The decision was taken after Genesis has been accused of “Satanic ritual abuse” for a video he created. It was time to leave England.

In 1993 he met and then married performance artist Jacqueline Breyer. She adopted the name Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge and the couple started to become mirror images of another. They applied the cut-up method to their own bodies to operate the mutation into a single pandrogynous being they called “Breyer P-Orridge“, with the help of plastic surgery and make up. Reverting the DNA of his own body could be seen as another act of rebellion from Genesis. Lady Jaye died in 2007 and Genesis chose to embrace the whole character on his own.

English Breakfast, 2002-2009, mixed media, Courtesy of Invisible Exports, NY

Genesis P-Orridge has exhibited in many art institutions around the world, including Centre Pompidou, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, White Columns, Barbican Museum, Deitch Projects.

Genesis P-Orridge is currently exhibiting at INVISIBLE-EXPORTS gallery, NYC. 30 years of being cut-up, until October 18 2009.
INVISIBLE-EXPORTS 14A Orchard Street, New York NY 10002

website:
http://www.genesisp-orridge.com
gallery:
http://www.invisible-exports.com

Simon Henwood

‘I paint my subjects as they are, as they choose to pose. There is no self-awareness; it is a very raw display of their own selves.’
Simon Henwood

Untitled, from the Cricklewood series

The launching of his retrospective book earlier that year is an occasion to focus on Simon Henwood, multi-disciplinary artist.
He lived in New York City between 1988 and 1992, where he released 11 books for adults and children, such as The Clock Shop, The King Who Sneezed and A Piece of Luck.
He launched Purr Magazine in 1993, which was the first magazine to attempt to combine art, comics, music and literature together. It featured artists’ painting and photography, as well as Henwood’s art. Each issue was accompanied by 10inch vinyl recordings. The magazine was distributed all over the world and become a small cult phenomena before stopping in 1995.
Soon after, he started a publishing company named Purr Books. He then involved himself with animation and started working on an animated series for British TV.
Alice was his second magazine venture. It focused on the representation of childhood in art and the media. It is very rare nowadays to find one issue of the magazine.
Simon Henwood has worked through a wide range of artistic media including painting, 3D animation, magazine production and film. He directed several music videos, for Apollo 440, Devendra Banhart, and Roisin Murphy, who is sexually assaulted in a funny way by a giant lobster in the Movie Star video.

Simon Henwood was born in Portsmouth, England in 1965. He lives in London.

website:
http://www.simonhenwood.com/

book:
Charlotte Mullins, Henwood: Paintings and Films 1998-2008, Stephane Simoens Editions, 2009

Ruby Blue