The Myartspace.com blog has done over interviews with contemporary artists including PosterBoy, Anthony Lister, and Mark Jenkins. Their latest in this series is London local D*Face.
Here’s a little preview of the interview, you can read the rest on their blog:
Brian Sherwin: Tell us more about your thoughts on consumerism and popular culture– and how your work offers, or at least explores, an alternative. For example, would you say that most people live in contradiction– in the sense that they strive to be individuals while embracing every message that flashes on the TV screen?
D*Face: The thing is life is full of contradictions, it keeps things interesting, certain people try to live out their lives through products and brands, it’s excepted in our society that shopping is a ‘hobby’ and wearing brands depicts your of a certain ‘stature’ or ‘class’. What I noticed recently with the down turn in the economy is that people are still going to the shops, it’s as if their lives have become programmed to do that, no matter whether they have money or not.
I was at a shopping center recently and it was strange, people were walking round the shops but like zombies or vultures circling a giant rotting corpse looking for a ‘bargain’. It was surreal, but at the same time really interesting, the backdrop of most shops ‘Sale’ or ‘Closing down’ signs covering the windows, made it feel like a film set or art installation.
I really don’t want to come across like I’m preaching, because I wear Nike, I drink Coke, but if there’s an alternative it should be considered.
My work has always been about a subversive intermission from the media saturated environment that surrounds us, I always saw the characters I was putting up as a break to to the advertising bombardment, it was also my escape from this world, I was surrounded by it, not just in the public domain, but at the time the marketing mumbo jumbo speak that I’d hear at work… it made me really cynical, I guess seeing and hearing it with my own eyes and ears made me want to spread the rot from the inside out.
You know, I’ve never said ‘don’t buy this brand or wear that label’ what I’ve wanted to do is get people to consider an alternative or look at the brands that surround us with different eyes. The billboard liberation’s I’ve created are my most direct way of instigating this.
