+ POWERHAUS

+ RICHARD MALOY

+ ALEX DA CORTE

+ ANGELA SINGER

+ CREMASTER

+ TEENTRASH

+ IRANA DOUER

+ BAT FOR LASHES

click images to enlarge
All images courtesy of Sue Crockford Gallery
and © the artist

“Today, because of technology, we are able to analyze cultures and lifestyles unimaginable to our own; it excites me in a revolutionary kind of way.”

Reflective mirrored surfaces meet black shiny leathers and acrylics in design duo Melissa Matos and Lenny Pier Ramos’ latest accessory range We are Powerhaus. Currently based in Montreal, Canada, the label will be working out of Antwerp and London starting September. Lenny and Melissa tell Nothing Magazine about how they’ve evolved PowerHaus into a design force to be reckoned with.

1. The name of your new range, We are PowerHaus, suggests you’re keen to
define your identity. What does PowerHaus stand for?
Melissa: PowerHaus, to me, stands for the notion of production. This is mainly a
project which we are using to build, evolve, educate one another and create dynamic experiences with other people and other things within the context of art and fashion. We are PowerHaus is about capturing and isolating different energies or ideas into the pieces and, eventually, onto the wearer.

2. This is your second accessory range. How has it evolved from the first one and what new directions are you seeking?
Lenny: We had about a year between both collections. We were both really taken by other things so, we kind of got back to design when we felt it was the time. When we had something new to say. I was particularly interested in geometry and the aesthetics of Golden Dawn Magick, as well as the work of artist Frank Haines and some of his predecessors like filmmakers Kenneth Anger and Alexandro Jodorowsky.

There is this great ceremonial aspect to their work, this engagement in ritual. So, I thought it would be nice to create pieces for Everyday Oracles, for individuals who see style as some kind of ritual, and also for people, like myself, who are maybe thinking: ‘well there are enough boring people all looking and doing the same, why not stand out and bring life back into the visual spectrum of human kind.’

3. All pieces are handmade, adding a personal touch to the range. What other techniques do you draw on to lend the pieces their own individual personality?
Melissa: Working with raw or basic materials in an interesting way. Both of us studied in textiles, so we think about texture and the application of techniques such as weaving or even manipulating chain like embroidery. I also think research is quite important. The best way I can describe it is as a constant awareness of the possibility in random articles, much like objects and interesting histories.

4. How does PowerHaus connect or diverge from your other work in fashion?
Lenny: It’s all very connected. It has to be. PowerHaus is a reflection of the work we do individually outside of designing for the line. It is definitely a mirroring of other projects and experiments. Hopefully the collection encapsulates and transmits that kind of energy.

5. You’ve said the label looks to define the visual energy of our generation. How would you describe that energy at the moment?
Melissa: It is in flux. Today, because of technology, we are able to analyze cultures and lifestyles unimaginable to our own; it excites me in a revolutionary kind of way.

6. Where next for PowerHaus?
Lenny: School! We are both moving to Europe to pursue studies in design. Lenny at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and Melissa will start her MA at Central Saint Martins.

click images to enlarge
All images courtesy of Sue Crockford Gallery
and © the artist

“...the action of the bag on the head is such a playful action it takes the political out of the act.”

Richard Maloy is a young New Zealand artist working across many media. I caught up with him to discuss a quirky suite of photographs recently shown at Sue Crockford Gallery in Auckland.

1. Your images often leave people wondering what your motivations for making them may have been. For me, there is a strong reference to the attitudes of "Generation Y". Faux this, pretend that, faking this, hiding that– do you agree?
There is a coded language at play with the works, which belongs to my wider art practice as a whole, it plays on, and out of referencing concepts and aesthetics from conceptual art to contemporary popular culture. Pretend, faking and hiding are all good words to describe what is happening physically within the work and with the process that is undertaken in engagement with the works.

2. You use yourself as the subject of many of your images. Do you intend them to read as self-portraiture or are you a stand in for the generic person?
I see them as working as both; a good way to describe this idea would be ‘generic artist'.

3. Do you think it’s important for your viewer to know that the figure in the images is the artist?
Yes I do think it is an important part. The works all have titles, which refer the works as being self-portraits. I have an interest in the connections that take place between artist and audience, and how the artwork operates, plays out and facilitates this.

4. There has been some suggestion that you work comments on our desire to remain buffered or insulated from each other within the world. Is this a desire you feel personally?
The works plays on the connections, or lack of connections, between the artist and audience. It uses art as a medium to play this out. The bag works have an odd type of emptiness about them, which connects the viewer to the subject, which in this case is also the artist.

It’s like an anti self-portrait, but the action of the bag on the head is such a playful action it takes the political out of the act.

5. The bag-on-head is a playful gesture and I thought a cutely cynical one. Perhaps commenting on the way in which an artist may feel suffocated by the art world? Has that crossed your mind?
Is that a coded question? Are you asking me if I feel suffocated by the art world? The answer is no. It is more about personal space as a person, versus personal space as an 'artist' and how and when does this occur, and what are the differences.

6. How would you characterize your art making in a couple sentences?
The ABC's of my work would be…Awkward, Build, Capture, Deadpan, Easiness, Fake, Guessing, Hazy, Idea, Juxtapose, knotty, Language, Maker, Naive, Order, Photographic, Questioning, Rational, Sculptural, tidiness, Unaccountable, Vagueness, wired…

7. Any wild dreams or fantasies for upcoming projects?
No wild dreams or fantasies, but I am looking forward to making new works and being based at Artspace Sydney for 3 moths starting in February next year as part of the residency program.

click images to enlarge
All images courtesy and © the artist

“I would like to make a colossal comet made entirely of glo-stix and glo-in-the-dark lanyard. I would install it above a place where many
people would gather and meet and point...”

1. Where are you from?
I was born in New Jersey- but I grew up in Venezuela. I live in Philadelphia now.

2. How did you get into making art?
My mom taught me how to draw Snoopy and Mickey Mouse. I would draw them holding hands and going camping together. That was the beginning for me.

3. How would you describe your work?
My work is like visual mash-ups.

4. Of all your work, which is your favourite piece, and why?
My favorite piece is "Thieves"– a large scale sculpture made of oversized fabric snakes suspended by hundreds of plastic cords. It
reminds me of a cross between a cartoon BOOM! and a rave. (Left, Image 1)

5. What would your dream project be?
I would like to make a colossal comet made entirely of glo-stix and glo-in-the-dark lanyard. I would install it above a place where many
people would gather and meet and point to the sky with mixed feelings of excitement and trepidation.

6. What would you do if you weren't creative?
I think everyone can be creative - even if it means sitting in a cubicle and making your Dilbert doll talk like your boss.

click images to enlarge
All images courtesy and © the artist

“When questioned about the trophies the owners had all but forgotten they were looking down on them, they had become invisible. I wanted to challenge that culture by giving the animal back its presence.”

1. In the nineties you worked as an animal activist and you continue to be concerned with animal ethics. How do you source the taxidermy for your work?
I recycle old taxidermy that’s mostly unwanted and donated. I advertise in local newspapers, some comes from rubbish tips; word of mouth brings a lot to the studio door.

2. You’ve described your art practice as a form of “de-taxidermy.” Can you explain this a little further?
My work goes against correct taxidermic practice by emphasizing aspects the taxidermist down played. For example, where a gun shot in the skin has been concealed I highlight the wound. By ‘stripping back’ the taxidermy to the underlying mount and cutting the animal out of its serene pose, I create a more realistic form. To make an animal more noticeable, I sculpt a new ‘flesh’ or I might decorate the animal with jewels and funereal flowers.

3. How did the hunting trophy become a recurrent motif in your art practice?
Hunting trophies are ubiquitous in New Zealand. Homes, sports clubs....both public and private places. What was interesting to me was that when questioned about the trophies the owners had all but forgotten they were looking down on them, they had become invisible. I wanted to challenge that culture by giving the animal back its presence, making the killed animal more confrontational, less easy to ignore.

4. When did you move from England to New Zealand? How has living and working in New Zealand shaped your recent work?
When I was eight my family immigrated to NZ, my 20s were spent in Australia and London, I returned to NZ in 1995. This is when I began working with old taxidermy. In England I never saw hunting trophies, I grew up on a housing estate, trophies were the ‘stuff’ of the upper classes. Not so in New Zealand. Hunting is not opposed here as sport and entertainment. Preserved dead animals are not considered offensive.

5. Your sculptures also reference the Victorian fashion of creating dioramas from taxidermied animals. Do you see any parallels between the Victorian age and our own?
The Victorians felt, in the move from rural to city living, the loss of connection to the natural world and sought to bring nature into their homes through taxidermy diorama. Our society is also suffering from the loss of connection to the wild.

6. Do you find people are generally understanding of your work as a critique of animal cruelty? Have you ever received negative reactions to your sculptures?
Recently I created a taxidermy installation in a shop window as part of the Auckland Arts Festival and had more contact with viewers than usual. Most got the work but there were a few who thought I was killing animals in the window!

7. What are you working on next?
I’m making a series of recycled taxidermy sculptures for a September show at Roger Williams Contemporary.

The Cremaster cycle, the epic five film installation by American artist Mathew Barney, takes its name from the male cremaster muscle that "controls testicular contractions in response to external stimuli."

This obscure biological occurrence provides the unifying theme behind all five works, progressing from the most undifferentiated or "ascended" state in "Cremaster 1" to the most differentiated or "descended" state in "Cremaster 5". Currently showing at the National Gallery of Victoria as part of Guggenheim: 1940s to Now, these visually sumptuous and beautifully constructed films are saturated with esoteric symbolism, references to mythology and explorations of sexuality and gender.

While trying to ‘make sense’ of the densely layer meanings and symbolism can be as difficult and as pointless as attempting to untangle a film by David Lynch, Barneys artificial and dynamic fantasy worlds can be enjoyed on several levels; as a ‘self enclosed aesthetic system’ in its full glory, or as fleeting, random and purely aesthetic episodes as the viewer walks around the five screens and out into the main body of the exhibition. My overall impression of this particular screening of the films (sans installations, sculptures and drawings which usually accompany the work) is that A) I love the fact that Barney has made such an esoteric, hard to understand, obviously incredibly expressive set of films which have against all odds enjoyed tremendous popularity and B) The Cremaster cycle is brilliant because every single frame looks so fucking good.

The Cremaster Cycle is currently showing as part of the Guggenheim Collection touring exhibition on now at the National Gallery of Victoria.

click images to enlarge
All images courtesy and © the artist

“My style? Totally punk rock. You know the first Ramones album? That’s me.”

1. Where are you from?
I live in north of Italy, Milano suburbs. I call it Deviltown, from a Daniel Johnston’s song. It’s classic suburbia: anonymous people, trees and no place to skate. I like to live here ‘cause people don’t care about me and cops are stupid.
 
2. How did you get into photography?
I started when I was 14. My brother used to shoot action photos for a skateboard mag so I got involved first in skateboarding and then in photography. Later I started to get more involved in the punk rock scene, so I started to shoot all my punk and skate friends. There’s a huge subculture connected with punk rock and skateboarding– so endless opportunity for great shoots. 
 
2. What makes a good picture?
Cheap cameras and cool subjects.  Usually I do nothing, it's the person in front of me that does everything– they are the picture. I just push a button.
 
3.   How would you describe your style?
My style? Totally punk rock. You know the first Ramones album? That’s me.
 
4.   Tell us about one of your favourite photos.
I love this photo (left, top). I’m not into the 6x6 thing but this one is one I Iove most. First: he’s one of my best friend, second: we were doing a drug party, third: is totally natural. No posing, no extra lights and elvis is watching us, can you check him on the left side?
 
5. What do you love about photography, and being a photographer?
The best thing is that I can put images on paper. I don’t remember all the things that I do, so this is a good way to remember things from my past. I love being aphotographer ‘cause I can see things in a different way than normal people…
 
6. What would be your dream project?
A photographic magazine, no words... nothing else but photos. Foto foto foto. I want to travel as much that I can. I love to push the button.
 
7. What are you working on now / next?
Right now I’m working on my zine TEENTRASH. It’s A3 in black and white, limited to 200 copies and distributed worldwide for free. I’m putting out a zine each month for one year. Then I'll look at putting it together all in one book. Later on I'm working on a book called DEVIL TOWN, about the suburbs I live in.

click images to enlarge
All images courtesy and © the artist

“I like to think of them as women who close their eyes just to be unable to see what’s going on around them, or to make disappear everything that surrounds them.”

1. Where are you from?
I am from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Born, raised and still living here.

2. How did you get into drawing?
I guess it just happened.

3. What makes a good picture?
I don’t think there’s an answer for that, it’s so relative. I could say composition, theme, color, etc. but sometimes you can have all that and still don’t get a good picture. I guess what makes something good is how you feel about it.

4. How would you describe your style?
Femenine. Sometimes violent.

5. Why do you draw what you draw?
I’m very interested in women and their emotions. Sometimes I represent things that happened / are happening to me and sometimes they’re just things that come up to my mind. Loneliness and pain are some of the feelings I like to work on the most.

In general, these women have their eyes closed. I like to think of them as women who close their eyes just to be unable to see what’s going on around them or to make disappear everything that surrounds them.

Hair is also very important in my work. Most of the image is very simple and the hair is where I include the most details. I think of hair as something very feminine and it can say many things: it can be just beautiful and controled in a braid or it can be loosen and cover them as invisible capes, protecting them.

6. What would be your dream project?
To have my own artspace and organize exhibitions here in Buenos Aires with all my favorite artists from around the world.

7. What are you working on now / next?
I’m working on several things for some publications and I’ve recently discovered ceramic paint so I’ve been drawing on teacups.
Also, I just got back from a two month trip through Europe and I’m planning a trip to Peru and Bolivia for the end of the year so I don’t know what’s next…hopefully new work and inspirational experiences.

Bat For Lashes is the work of British singer/ songwriter, multi- instrumentalist and visual artist Natasha Khan. Born in 1979, yet combining influences that span decades, Natasha’s work dwells in the elemental, emerging in timeless forms.

Bat For Lashes’ music is bold and vivid. Her live shows, with accomplices Ginger Lee, Abi Fry and Lizzy Carey, are made up of thunderous marching band drums, desert guitar, ballet school piano, harpsichord, sub-bass snarls, hand-claps and naive beats, with the women fluidly switching and swapping their instruments between songs. There are also interludes of exquisite heartbreak; the piano ballad 'Sad Eyes' has on more than one occasion left audience members in tears. Her debut album Fur and Gold is a very special record, a cohesive collection of songs so haunting and mesmerizing it makes a striking impression on all who hear it.

It was whilst working as a nursery school teacher, following her university degree in film and music, that Fur and Gold album opener 'Horse & I' came to Natasha in a dream. Inspired by tales of Joan of Arc, Natasha is woken by a black horse at the window and sent on a fateful quest. This extraordinary dream became the muse for the songs that now comprise Fur and Gold.

Recorded in London and Brighton, Natasha co-produced the album with David Kosten (Faultline). Recurrent themes of natural forces and animal kingdoms, rugged English cliff tops and engulfing oceans – highlighted on the lament 'Seal Jubilee', are juxtaposed by the energy of rough urban living, teenage bedrooms and the freedom of California highways. Josh T Pearson (Lift To Experience) guests, adding guitar and vocals on three tracks – the brooding live favorite 'Trophy', 'Seal Jubilee' and the finale 'I Saw A Light', adding the kind of hymns and chaos that only the son of a preacher could provide.

Bat For Lashes played her first big show in London supporting CocoRosie at the Scala at the end of 2005. A year later almost to the day, Bat For Lashes headlined a sold out Scala, where the likes of Bjork, Nellee Hooper and Brett Anderson were to be seen in the sold out crowd. Other fans include Devendra Banhart, Jarvis Cocker and Thom Yorke (who chose 'Horse & I' for his iTunes Top Ten Playlist, saying "I love the harpsichord and the sexual ghost voices and bowed saws. This song seems to come from the world of Grimm's fairytales, and I feel like a wolf.")

Having spent parts of her childhood in Pakistan, Natasha Khan now lives by the sea in England.

Buy the album Fur & Gold here.