Interview with Artist Anonymous
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Artists Anonymous was founded in 2001 the members studied at University of Arts, London and University of Arts, Berlin till 2007 ; they live and work in London and Berlin.
The anonymity of AA allows the viewer to experience their work without consideration for the identity of the artist. Works by Artists Anonymous are included in major public and private collections worldwide.
Hi Artists Anonymous, today MoW selected 5 of your artworks inspired by music, can you tell MoW what was the music behind them ? How did music inspired them ? What inspired you to create those ?
Rock'n Roll
The connection to music from each of these pieces is very different, starting with the most obvious, "Rock’n Roll “. It is an afterimage with a real electric guitar applied. The guitar is connected to a small amp and still playable.So on the opening where the work was shown the first time, one of us was actually “playing" this artwork…
“Am Ende Ein Gott”, the sofa with the newspaper on it is actually a music object. When you go close to it ( or sit on ) to see the lightbox that replaces a picture of Elvis Presley in the paper, you very quietly hear a female voice singing ”Love me Tender”.
Am Ende Ein Gott
The 2 afterimages you picked “Guard” (artwork on the left) and "I Love The World” (artwork on the right) are created in a time (and definitely inspired by this) when we discovered some music that we never heard about before. Someone passed “The Remote Viewer” from Coil to us and “Lucipher Over London” from Current 93. We just got copies of the cd’s without knowing anything about the band or the time the music was created, so it was only the music without any preferences.
The newest one “Old Game New’ was shown first time in NYC this year in spring, and we caught up with our habit from earlier shows to have a DJ playing at the show. Decent electro, the kind one wishes to listen to when going out dancing. Check out here
Old Game New
Why is music important to you and your art?
Painting is a very slow process, sometimes it is nice to work in silence or listen to audiobooks, but mostly there is a “ soundtrack” for a working period appearing, that represents the mood, the time and that somehow also feeds into the painting. Of course installation time is requiring certain music too, but more to cheer you up and keep you going...
If you had to choose between the artworks presented today, which of your artwork would be your favourite ?
That is a mean question for an artist, that means to devalue your own work, but it is also a reasonable question; the most correct answer will be: the latest one, obviously. cause during the time one is learning and enhancing skills. On the other hand I love the objects, especially the “Singing Sofa” cause I like the kind of humour...
Can you tell MoW more about the techniques you used. How old is your technique? How did it start?
The technique of painting and afterimage was developed around 2003/2004. Our painting process is creating an “afterimage” that is as relevant as the painting itself. A second image that is developing contemporaneously to the painting, both influencing each other in their quality. The afterimage is remaining untouched by matter until- through the process of photography, print, scan or any other technique that includes an inversion- is made visible.
How long does it take you to make an artwork?
As time is not linear, hard to tell, it goes quick or takes ages…
Do you have plans on creating new artworks insipired by music?
Of course, all of them, it’s actually much more important than food...
What is the song you liked the most lately? Or album ? What was the last gig you went to ?
Burial is one of the new favourites, Alberta Cross', "Broken Side Of Time" just has a revival.
Mano Chao is always available, especially in the car, Bob Marley saves our souls several times a year. Gil Scott Heron, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”.
"Universal Mother" from Sinead O'Connor, even if the intro from Germaine Greer is probably the most important “ song” on this album. Sinead and Massive Attack are just the best collaboration ever, rage reminds us that anger is a gift and that silence can be violence and our turntables, that only play dub reggae (and Janis from time to time) remind us that a good party doesn’t need a computer.
The last gig, if you mean live playing bands, is ages ago, Radiohead in London I think ( small private gig). Concerts and festivals are mostly useless, too big, but there are always good sound systems around.we just start discovering the local Dubstep range in Liverpool and Manchester cause we moved up north, let’s see.
Are you a musician yourself ? If so can you tell MoW more about your music projects ?
We did some stuff ourself and are planning on doing more, soundtracks for videos, a song as the sounded carpet for an exhibition, oh and the performances, well they are quite harsh sometimes, singing a song all over again, till the voice breaks ( It then actually didn’t break, I could just go on and on…at some point someone made me stop…)
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