+ MICHAEL PYBUS

+ LOUISE CLIFTON

+ GARRETT HUGHES

+ PREEN

+ SLAVA MOGUTIN

+ NATASHA CANTWELL

+ JIMMY D

+ BLOC PARTY

+ JAY MATTHEWS

+ CANSEI DE SER SEXY

IMAGES courtesy and © the artist

“I have a pretty broad practice. I don’t like to confine myself to categories.”

INTERVIEW by Jason Lingard

1. Where are you from?
Originally a little village in North East England. I moved down to London in 2001 to do my BA and have stayed here ever since.

2. How did you get into what you do?
There was no getting into it really. I’ve made stuff for as long as I can remember I suppose in my late teens I began to understand that what I wanted to do was art and that this was a viable option for me.

3. How would you describe your work?
I have a pretty broad practice. I don’t like to confine myself to categories. I find that whole classification of a ’painter’ a ’sculptor’ etc extremely dated. My work is just an external response to what concerns, excites and intrigues me. It explores notions such as time, nostalgia, obsolesance and gender against more formal art historical issues such as surface, colour and form.

4. What medium do you most enjoy working with?
We live in a world that offers a ridiculous amount of choice, my work reflects this. I use everything from ’art’ materials such as paper, paints and wool to cereal boxes, duct tape and toilet rolls. I’m interested in exploiting and exploring the qualities of the things I have around me. I’m not interested in a hierarchy of materials - they are all on an even playing field to me (although the varying costs of each material beg to differ). I don’t want to make works which hold authority through their materials.

I use materials such as glossy magazine imagery, veneers and mass produced products. Through my use such things in collages and with paint I deviate the materials and attempt to give them a new reading and context.

For instance there seems to be a trend in contemporary art at the moment to cast everyday objects in bronze and then paint the bronze to look exactly like the object it was cast from. I see this as a blatant attempt to please the gallerists and collectors. It much easier for a gallerist to justify a hefty price for a work in bronze than it is to justify for a found object - bronze has that whole historical perspective on it, plus it doesn’t deteriorate over time and too boot with bronze you can cast an edition of three and really cash in on one idea.

5. How much does the material you use depend on what you are trying to express, and how do they effect the outcome?
The material is extremely important. Choose the wrong material and you can’t make what you wanted to make. I don’t tend to force a material to do something it really doesn’t want to do. If paint wants to drip I’ll allow it. I may want a geometric shape so I’ll use masking tape - if the paint bleeds a little so be it. I’m not concerned with ultra slick surfaces and finish. Everywhere you look these days is full of ‘perfect’ finish; sleek cars, airbrushed advertising and immaculate fresh produce. This is a consequence of living in an industrial, machine made society. I accept this is the world I live in in brings me great convenience and luxury however what does concerns me is that because we are now used to this ’perfect’ machine finish we tend be even more disgusted with any form defect or deviation from the norm. We live in an age of unattainable perfection.

6. What's the worst piece of art you've seen lately?
I’d have to say Holler’s ‘Test Site’ slides in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern are thoroughly depressing. They have turned that place into even more of a theme park than it normally is. A building which feels like a shopping centre now has its own fun park. People queue and wait for hours to go down these things. I don’t see many people even attempting to engage with the work critically and as an art work. I’m passionate about art and I can’t engage with it so what hope does someone who doesn’t really care about art have of exploring the work.

I hear that its bringing people to the gallery that wouldn’t normally come. But that in itself is not an achievement - Tate Modern is hardly a struggling enterprise in need of more visitors. I feel it just adds the continuing dumbing down of the arts for an ever widening general public. Art is serious and it is difficult to understand. It takes a lot of time and repeat visits to galleries to really begin to understand how it operates. How can a drawing or a sculpture for example compete with the exhilaration of whizzing down a slide 5 floors high.

I shouldn’t come down too heavily on the Tate as it does do many a good thing. There just seems to be an ever increasing amount of international competition between the major museums to have the blockbuster shows, highest visitor numbers and not to forget an iconic building which completely shadows all the art work which it was designed to celebrate. I may sound a little nihilistic, I’m not I guess I just like a good rant.

7. What would your dream project be?
I don’t have one as such. I just want to be able to pursue this career and enjoy some of the privileges that come with it, exhibiting work, meeting new people being involved with exciting projects. If I’d have to pin down one thing I’d definitely like to do in the future it would be a book . I love artists books and I think in producing one I really get a real sense of achievement.

click images to enlarge

IMAGES courtesy and © the artist

“They'd all like a cuddle... which they'd get if only they weren't so ugly.”

INTERVIEW by Jason Lingard

1. Where are you from?
Oamaru, New Zealand.

2. How did you get into photography?
I went to design school, the first year I tried a bit of everything and photography was the thing I responded to the most.

3. What elements do you feel make up a successful image?
Good compositon, good lighting, and most importantly, a good idea.

4. You often create surreal situations in your photographs, with a combination of costumes/props and Photoshop manipulation. Tell us about physical process you go through?
Well, I collect pictures which I like the look of, and then try and combine them. I gather props. I quite often make hokey contraptions out of sellotape and foam board, I also sew costumes. I also do a lot of handpainting - which is extremely meticulous and takes me hours.

Originally, I got into photoshop because I found the chemicals in the darkroom overwhelming, and so photoshop became my darkroom instead. The more you use it - the tricksier you get! It's just another tool, really.

5. You've described your work as a type of "modern surrealism". What ideas or feelings are most prevalent in the conceptual side of your work?
'Modern surrealism' is just a tag that I use to describe my pictures to people who have never seen them before. I don't really like explaining my work - I think that the images should stand alone.

That said, I guess I do like taking photographs of people or humaniods that look a little lonely and uncanny. They'd all like a cuddle... which they'd get if only they weren't so ugly.

6. What would be your dream project?
I don't think that I have a dream project. My favorite part of my photography process is the time that I spend in photoshop. So, if I could do that indefinately, I'd be happy.

7. What are you working on now / next?
I just finished a portrait of Bachelorette. I've got shows coming up in March in Melbourne in March, Wellington in May, and Brisbane in September. I've tucked myself away in a small town to get it all done!

Louise is part of the group show "The Golden Age of Transfiguration" presented as part of the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival and supported by Nothing Magazine. For more info click here

click images to enlarge

IMAGES courtesy and © the artist

“Once i've finished a piece of work, photography seems to be a small part of the process. The costume making and the hands on labour of the work is most time consuming. ”

INTERVIEW by Jason Lingard

1. Where are you from?
All over, but at the moment i'm Melbourne based.

2. How did you get into photography?
My father was a photographer, so i grew up with it from a very young age.

3. What do you love the most about being a photographer?
Its hard to say. Once i've finished a piece of work, photography seems to be a small part of the process. The costume making and the hands on labour of the work is most time consuming. I really enjoy pushing the boundaries of the photographic process. I'm continually experimenting with the negative/transparency by slicing, scratching, glueing, underexposing, overexposing, etc

4. Most of your images are collage/montage, resulting in an extreme mutilation and re-configuration of the subject. How does this fit with the story you're telling in your photographs?
Even though the exposing of blood, guts and flesh is often related to gore or horror. I use it in a different way which is hopefully communicated successfully in my work. Its about our relationship with the internal and how our blood, guts and biology relate to our external worlds, and vice versa. I enjoy exploring the relationship between these two worlds in my work.

5. Scenes of blood and guts aren't always easily digested by the public, what kind of feedback have you had?
Its very broad, people either love it or hate it, which i don't mind. I like the idea of being displeased or revolted by an image, sometimes its just as enjoyable as being pleased by an image, there's still an attraction. So i think either reaction is valid. Its like recently, i've enjoyed loathing Germaine Greer just as much as i've enjoyed Britney's bald head.

6. What are you working on now / next?
I'm working on a series of work called 'Biolographic Works', which talks about my intererests in the relationship between our biology and biography. The work is quite personal and draws on emotions from experiences that are so extreme, they seem to sublimate themselves physically.

Garrett is part of the group show "The Golden Age of Transfiguration" presented as part of the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival and supported by Nothing Magazine. For more info click here

WORDS by Nigel Hannah

When considering Preen’s tenure at the top of cutting-edge London fashion, ten years is a long time and quite an achievement. Consider their history of strong collections, that they are still independently run, and you’ll be up quickly giving them a standing ovation.

The fashion industry is considered by many to be fickle and so self loathing that every six months it has to completely re-invent itself like an ailing popstar. So it’s little wonder how small independent labels such as Preen manage to survive and nab those customers and magazine spread inches jostling against such luxe giants as LVMH. Determination, uncompromising vision and originality have given design duo Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi of Preen the tools to survive and succeed in the chic eat chic world of fashion.

Their collections have covered an array of influences and styles from reworking a classic trench into a melange of flaps & buttons for a bustier in AW2003 or commanding a disparate mess of shirt collars into a flawless cocktail dress of muted oak, tan & slate in 2004. Their current obsession for AW07 is Claude Montana, an 80’s designer known for big shoulders & shiny leather.

To celebrate this monumental decade, Thornton and Bregazzi are holding a retrospective of their work in London. Fortunately it will be jetted across the ocean to Australia in time for the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival (LMFF) this month before zipping up to Tokyo in April.

The retrospective includes archive pieces, sketches, original photographs & back-stage shots. With so many shows, exhibitions and parties to choose from for LMFF, Preen is not to be missed.

For more information on the Preen retrospective in Melbourne visit www.lmff.com.au

click images to enlarge

IMAGES courtesy of Power House Books
© Slava Mogutin

“I realized that you don't need an expensive camera or professional studio set-up in order to take a beautiful, original picture.”

INTERVIEW by Nicholas Harmer

1. Where are you from?
I'm from Siberia, from the big industrial city of Kemerovo – the Detroit of Russia.

2. Was your photography always intended to be a primary art form of yours, or is it just something you fell into?
I started out as a writer but I've been always taking pictures and making art – drawings, collages, text pieces… I've always considered myself an artist, not just a photographer or a writer. When I was exiled from Russia and moved to New York, I started focusing more on my visual art because it doesn't require translation and it's more accessible for a broader audience. Photography is my passion, but I feel like I don't want to be limited by any particular genre or medium and want to explore all of them!

3. Can you explain what inspires you to create these sexual scenes?
I usually don't create scenes. All my work is totally personal and spontaneous. I like documenting my own life and other people who are my friends or lovers. I just let them play and do whatever turns them on. My camera is just a part of the game, but not the main part. I like photographing people in vulnerable, intimate situations, like a guy sniffing another guy's armpit, or skinheads spitting and pissing on each other, or a boy with a cucumber up his ass...

4. Is there a certain process you undertake for your photography?
I'm not a studio photographer, I know nothing about professional equipment or lighting. I prefer working in the natural settings, using point-and-shoot or disposable cameras and ambient light. After working with artists like Terry Richardson and Bruce LaBruce, I realized that you don't need an expensive camera or professional studio set-up in order to take a beautiful, original picture. I did experiment a lot with different film and processing, and my sense of composition has changed a lot over the past 6-7 years, since I started publishing and exhibiting my work.

5. What other projects have you been involved with?
Two years ago together with my boyfriend-collaborator Brian Kenny, I formed a multimedia art team SUPERM. Our installations combine photography, videos, sound, text, drawings, murals, graffiti, stencils, collages, sculptures, found objects – everything we can get our hands on. We already did shows in six countries and there is more to come! Besides that, I'm working on my first feature movie, Champagne & Caviar, produced by Berlin-based Cazzo Films. It's a non-narrative art-porn film based on the themes of food and bodily fluids, inspired by the works of Pasolini, Marco Ferreri, Lucas Moodysson, Paul McCarthy, Viennese Actionists and other cult filmmakers and artists. It's gonna be the kinkiest movie ever!

Lost Boys by Slava Mogutin is out now through Power House Books

click images to enlarge

IMAGES courtesy and © the artist

“I used to think I hated fashion photography with its slick, over-processed aesthetic. Then I discovered anti-fashion...”

INTERVIEW by Jason Lingard

1. Tell us about your photos. What are they about?
The starting point was the backhanded sense of community that exists around me. People think of ‘home’ as this old-fashioned idea but it seems to still hold true. No matter how much people say they want to escape this town they always end up coming back. They may isolate themselves from a larger cultural identity but there’s still a small space in the city where they belong. Even those who negatively refer to it as ‘the scene’ know that it’s their community.

2. Where do you live? How do your surroundings affect your work?
Auckland is a functional city. You could hardly say it’s famed for its beauty. Character buildings are constantly being torn down to make way for cheap shoe-box apartments. My photographs reflect the attitude I have towards these surroundings. In a city of constant change I find myself seeking out the small sections of the urban environment that have been over-looked by developers. By pointing my camera in a certain direction I can isolate these parts that interest me from the rest of the city. What is happening outside of the viewfinder ceases to exist and I end up creating an Auckland so selective that not even people who live here would recognise it.

3. Do you feel your work is a little fashion-influenced?
I used to think I hated fashion photography with its slick, over-processed aesthetic. Then in my first year at university I discovered ‘anti-fashion’, Corinne Day and iD magazine. This was a big influence on me back when I was still defining my style. I started photography people in a way that was closer to fashion than portraiture. Rather than trying to draw out the subject’s own personality I’d use people as props to create a desired image.

I really like it when photographers cross the art fashion divide. Wolfgang Tillmans does it really well. I’d say I’m an art photographer whose work sometimes comes dangerously close to fashion. I’ve shot for magazines like Pavement, Staple and Frankie but I spend most of my time working towards exhibitions.

4. What other photographers and artists do you look up to?
I’m really into films, music videos and cinematography. Some favourites are Larry Clark’s ‘Ken Park’, Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ and Alfonso Cuarón's ‘Y Tu Mamá También’.

One of my favourite gallery pieces is the Gilbert and George film ‘Gordon's Makes Us Drunk’ from 1972. The conservatively dressed artists sit at a table listening to classical music. They drink Gordon’s gin declaring every so often that "Gordon's makes us very drunk." It’s brilliantly deadpan.

New York artist Anthony Goicolea also does great video work, as well as large-scale photographs of school boys, summer camp, kidnapping and cannibalism. And while he doesn’t usually shoot fashion I love his collaborations with Richard Orjis for L’uomo Vogue.

5. How do you feel about the New Zealand photography scene?
If there is a scene I think it belongs to the kids with the camera phones and the pros with their digital SLRs that you can’t escape at gigs and parties.

6. What are you working on now? & what are your plans for the future?
My biggest project at the moment is preparing work for an upcoming exhibition at Kings ARI in Melbourne. I’ll be exhibiting along side Sebastian Moody in a show called Identity.

It will include work from my current series shot at home and in New York. I’m using a Contax point-and-shoot camera with a less-than-accurate viewfinder in an attempt to stop obsessing over composition. It hasn’t exactly worked though. I’m still as obsessed with framing; I just go through a lot more film now.
I’m going to go over and hang out in Melbourne while it’s on. Now I plan on organising more overseas shows. It’s the best excuse to go travelling.

'Identity' opens on March 16 at Kings ARI in Melbourne.

“I was inspired by how all the characters were so desperately searching for love or connections, briefly finding them, and their inevitable loss.”

INTERVIEW by Jason Lingard

Where are you from?
Although my passport says ‘Cuckfield, England’ under place of birth, I spent most of my formative years in Upper Hutt, New Zealand. This consisted of growing up, working in a Malaysian restaurant, hanging at the local mall, wearing nasty polyester ‘retro’ clothes and socialising with my geeky friends and the exchange students on a grassy knoll at Heretaunga College. I'm now based in Auckland, via Wellington.

How did you get into fashion?
It was kind of a natural progression really, at high school I was a major arts geek. I discovered photography in my final year and I remember picking up fashion mags like ‘The Face’ ‘Oyster’ and ‘Pavement’ and being struck by how accessible they made fashion – beautiful models were photographed in suburban environments. Before that fashion had always been shiny and perfect to me. Initially I was just looking at the photography, but it wasn’t long before I became more interested in the clothes in the pictures. Alongside all this I worked in fashion retail, and slowly I started drawing my own ideas in my visual diary. While I was studying photography I did one paper in pattern development but it wasn’t until I got back from London that I thought that my ideas were developed enough to make them a reality.

Tell us about the inspiration for your latest collection.
I was introduced to the early Greg Araki films like ‘Nowhere’ and ‘Totally F***ED Up’ while I was at high school, and I always remember how weird, and well… fucked up they were, but at the same time I could really connect with them. When I watched them again before starting on Winter I was inspired by how all the characters were so desperately searching for love or connections, briefly finding them, and their inevitable loss. I started thinking of this broken heart motif, two halves of a heart like those cutesy necklaces people wear, which seemed perfectly hopeful and completely bleak at the same time. From this I just played on the idea of things falling apart, from dancehall-esque cut out shoulders, and cut out leggings to oversized tee shirts sliced in half and falling away at the shoulders. I was listening to ‘The Knife’ a lot at the time and wanted to give it a slightly rave feel without getting too neon on it. A spider web motif at a club in Sydney inspired the cobweb print which my friend and collaborator Jeff Burch reconstructed out of twine, photographed, and turned into fabric prints.

The Everybody Loves Nobody Sometimes collection is definitely in a darker direction. New Zealand designers tend to have a darker aesthetic compared to say their Australian neighbours. Why do you think this is?
That’s an age old question! Books have been written on that topic. Maybe it’s just a symptom of our isolation (not that I think we could describe ourselves as isolated anymore) as a country we have grown up unaware or suspicious of trends – things have to be more practical and have more longevity here.

Whatever it is, it permeates through our film, music, and arts, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Where do you see your label heading now?
I’m not looking for global domination, I don’t want to have Jimmy D in 10 stores in every city, I just want to have my label in good stores that get what I do, and get to work with cool, like minded people. There’s a menswear line in the pipeline, and having a Jimmy D shop in the future would be mighty nice.

REVIEW by Karlee Slater

Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City
V2 / Shock

“[Bloc Party] set about channeling the endless inspiration of gigs, success, acclaim, chaos and cocaine into an electrifying new album.”

There’s always a sense of nervous anticipation surrounding a bands’ second album. London’s Bloc Party were no exception, however, after two years of solid touring, they returned to their base in East London and set about channeling the endless inspiration of gigs, success, acclaim, chaos and cocaine into an electrifying new album.

A Weekend in the City is the band’s new release, an offering which sees the boys confident and capable, and, together with producer Jacknife Lee (Snow Patrol, U2), they’ve stepped up the production and arrangements, splicing thick beats, drum and bass (‘Waiting For the 7.18’), minimal techno (‘On’, ‘Hunting For Witches’) and plenty more into the choppy riffs and throbbing bass of their first release, Silent Alarm.

Lead singer Kele Okereke’s vocals have evolved in the past two years, growing more mature and open. Cocaine-ode ‘On’ and ‘The Prayer’ speak of this confidence: the ability to charm, dazzle, impress and outshine. The band may respectively tap the downside of drug-assisted life and fame, but the boys have really hit the spot with this record.

21st Century Britain takes a beating throughout, from the scaremongering of terrorism (‘Hunting For Witches’) to second-generation immigrant angst (‘Where Is Home?’), suicide (‘SRXT’) and homogenised youth culture (‘Uniform’).

A Weekend In The City is arguably one of the best releases this year- and I know it’s early, but Bloc Party have yet again aligned themselves with perfection.

Bloc Party play two Australian shows later this year in August.

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IMAGES courtesy and © the artist

“The redundancy of the printed form is also exposed, haven't we all gone digital?”

INTERVIEW by Jason Lingard

1. Where are you from?
I'm from Perth, Western Australia also known as butt fuck nowhere. I now live in Melbourne.

2. What's your definition of "good art"?
Anything that gives me wood. I am really into sleazy photos at the moment. That can include a great photo of an empty room.

3. How would you describe your art practice?
Way to diverse, I need to focus. I do lots of stuff including photos, videos, sculptures, installation and painting. I work on the ideas and the medium is dictated by that.

4. Your most recent piece was an entry for the Adult Shop.com / Artrage Erotic Art Prize...
My piece, Second Hand, explores the intimacy between humans and the objects we create.

Each origami butterfly has been created using donated second hand pornography. They are coded as to how long it took the owner to reach orgasm whilst masturbating to the image in its original state and the corresponding page number. The erotic as opposed to simply the explicit nature of the images is revealed through its new fragmentation.

The second hand case emerged from under someone's bed where it housed their porn collection - their own museum of porn. The redundancy of the printed form is also exposed, haven't we all gone digital?

The Artrage Erotic Art Prize takes place in Northbridge, Western Australia at the Breadbox Gallery, 233 James Street from the 9th of March.

REVIEW by Nikki Baumann

Cansei De Ser Sexy
Sub Pop

“The indie rock scene can be prone to a lot of self-indulgent and depressive mumbling, CSS comes from the complete other end of the spectrum.”

This self-titled offering from Cansei De Ser Sexy, also known as CSS, (Portuguese for Tired of Being Sexy, their name being taken from a Beyonce quote), is the first international release for the group after releasing three other EP’s, both independently and with another label. The band, after receiving unprecedented levels of hype on local newspapers and TV channels in their hometown of Sao Paolo, Brazil, have catapulted into the public eye and worldwide music press (even despite the fact that the album has failed to chart in the USA). The band, having originally started as an excuse to meet for drinking (as nobody but the drummer could even play their instruments properly), has evolved into a musical phenomenon, blending their unique brand of cute and sassy electro-rock with other media such as design, cinematography and fashion, and then augmenting it with humorous lyrics in English and Portuguese.

While a lot of offerings from the indie rock scene can be prone to a lot of self-indulgent and depressive mumbling, CSS comes from the complete other end of the spectrum, assaulting the eardrums with nothing but a sense of fun and a devotion to dance floor hedonism. They are not aiming at breaking any new ground here, instead borrowing from other influences and using them in new ways and doing so in such a manner that it all sounds fresh and new, not like another manufactured cover of all you’ve heard before. They are not there to make any kind of statement– CSS emphasises style, fashion and a cool aesthetic above all over their place in the music industry.

In an industry where it seems everyone is shouting to make their opinions heard, isn’t it nice to just step back every now and again and enjoy a song for the sake of it? Isn’t it nice to put on a song such as their first single, “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above” or my personal favourite “Alala”, and have a shameless dance around your living room every once in a while? Like their MySpace page says, “They are the unpretension: unfinished, exposed, and throwing all they have right at you… Not a sneer but a giggle.” I reckon it’s a damn nice change to sit back and giggle.