Alessandro's Website

If you had one superpower what would it be?

Wow, tough question. It would probably be something to do with time - maybe having power over time… not actually going back in time but something like having more time in some specific situations, stretching it or having the ability to skip it forward in other situations.

If you were to go down in history for inventing something what would that be?

I have this thing for pioneering electronic music, like the first synthesizers and things like that. I think it’s a very romantic version of scientific research but completely focused on music and musical experimentation. I would like to be one of those first people to realise that electricity could produce sound, that you can translate an electronic signal to an audio signal and all the possibilities that come after that!

Is there a software you're struggling to use?

Probably Adobe Illustrator… because I’ve recently started doing some illustrations and I’ve done most of them with Photoshop and I know that they’d come out way better with Illustrator. I feel like I’ve come to some point in which I managed to work out my own way of using Photoshop. Moving to a new software kind of scares me and also I would really like to actually know how to use some musical softwares the one I use right now is like the lamest software ever.

An exhibition you think would be good to take children to (nephews, cousins)?

Ok I think there are two different paths you can take from here. One is some sort of super huge institutional exhibitions for example I think about the Philippe Parreno exhibition curated by Andrea Lissoni at the Hangar Bicocca, it’s almost super entertaining and it could be entertaining for children as it has all those lights and the magical atmosphere. That could be an easy way into an artwork. Last time I was in London, I saw this show by Darren Bader at Sadie Coles. It was very lighthearted but it managed to address some super serious issues in the art world and how contemporary art really works right now. So I think starting from that could bring some very interesting approach to viewing contemporary art,

What's the last song you played on your phone?

Let's check Spotify…’In the Beginning’ by Weyes Blood. She’s an American songwriter. I think she's really cool because she's playing on all these typical folk singer aesthetics from the 60s and 70s and on it’s current revival without really being part of that revival (if it makes sense). I’ve got a quite strong connection with her and her music because I found out about her a little more than a year ago and when she came to play here in Milan there were like 10 people in the audience. I feel like one day she will be super big and I’ll be able to say ‘I was one of the 10 people who went to her show!’

If you could have been assisting any movie director in the making of a movie, who would it be and for what movie?

For historical reasons I’d say: assisting Stanley Kubrick on the set of The Shining. I once saw this documentary (I think by his daughter) that was on the set of The Shining, and it was super intense...apparently Shelley Duvall's hair started falling out because she was so stressed. He adopted this technique where even if a scene was really good he’d keep filming to the 50th take to get the actors genuinely stressed out, not playing the role of a stressed out person but being really stressed. And even the hotel rooms, there were like 2 windows so it appeared like a corner room but when seen from the outside it clearly wasn’t a corner room. I think it would have been really interesting to take part in it, it’s one of the movies I like the most.

The most exciting thing in your schedule for this summer? I’ve got a few concerts I’m really looking forward to, like yeah there’s this band called Godspeed You Black Emperor, then I’m going to see My Bloody Valentine so that will be exciting.

Yeah...I think that’s it for the summer because actually I have this thing in which my parents and my sister schedule their summer vacation like a lot earlier than I can even imagine and so I always end up being the one taking care of the dogs in August...but that’s pretty exciting as well, I’m kind of getting used to that being my real vacation like I have my house free for a month and I can watch all the TV series and movies and readings I missed during the year...yeah let’s see

If you could right now speak to the ghost of an artist who would it be and what would you ask them? Wow. If I could choose a writer it would be Frank Herbert. He’s the one who wrote the Dune Saga. It’s this super crazy and deep sci-fi saga set like 10,000 years in a parallel future where humanity has destroyed and banned any kind of artificial intelligence. I read the books back to back like 2 years ago and I feel like they completely changed my life and the way I see the future, humankind and life as a whole. I remember finishing them and feeling the urge of writing him a letter even though he died like more than 20 years ago I really felt like I had something to ask or tell him.

Do you have a life hack for us?

I am so glad you’re asking because I do and I really think it could make everybody’s life better! It’s actually my own copyrighted lifehack. I remember as a child I kind of developed super easy technique on how to wear your clothes when they are inside-out without having to put them the right way. So if you’re jumper is laying inside-out on the bed, you can just stick your head in the head hole and reverse it when you are wearing it. Super simple but just...genius!

A question you might like to ask yourself?

I’m really glad you asked how I wear my jumper haha, so I guess my question is: How do you wear your jumper? Or maybe: Do you fold your clothes after you wear them or do you just leave them there for the next time?

29/05/2018

https://lydiablakeley.com/

If you were to describe yourself in a dance move what would it be?

Ooh, that’s tricky, it’s hard. I don’t know the terminology, but I can do it now. A 70s hips move with a click. That’s my dance move/signature, it sums me up.

What was/is your favourite reality tv show on tv?

It’s obviously got to be Keeping Up with the Kardashians, it has to. I just think it’s so interesting. The way it’s changed over the seasons, it is fascinating. I've recently been watching Life of Kylie, which I also think is great, and obviously all of the offshoots: Kocktails with Khloe and Khloe and Kourtney in Miami. But the Keeping Up with the Kardashians franchise is definitely my number one favourite go to. I kind of went away from it and then came back to it, and I'm just just fully immersed in it even though it makes me quite sad to watch it because it's just another world but it's fascinating.

Let's add an image of your Kardashian homes series

KIMS HAUS (painting by me 66x42cm)

When was the last time you changed your bedsheets?

Oh, I actually did that really recently It was about a week ago and I got some really nice bedding from TK Maxx. Your bedroom has to be a haven, you have to love being in there.

If you were to eliminate one colour from your palette forever what would that colour be?

Purple, real dislike. All purple. A really bright purple is just kind of gross, like Barney purple. It's just garrish and nasty. It’s awful when you're mixing up paint and you end up with purple or when it gets on the canvas and you’re like what is that... Never in clothing, not on a palette, never, no flowers either.

French fries or doughnuts?

French Fries everytime, I'm more of a savory person. McDonald's, great ones.

One single that you are you like that came out in the last year?

Well, recently, in line with the colour theme, one song I’ve been listening to on repeat is PYNK by Janelle Monáe. It’s such a lovely song. The whole album, Dirty Computer, is amazing.

Something you are looking forward to?

Lots of things. Summer break! This year has been quite intense, it will be nice to take some time to relax and not watch reality tv. Take a few weeks over summer to go out to places, go to the seaside and be a tourist. Enforce time to not work and do things I would enjoy as I have a tendency to box myself in.

If you could choose anyone to sit for you for a portrait?

I’d have a group, or a band. Maybe a family! Omg, as long as they were there in the flesh, I would paint the Kardashian family portrait and the extended family. Even in purple, if they wanted. If it would be of one person I would choose Kris, as she is the matriarch.

Life hack?

Right, my life hack is Citymapper! I literally couldn't negotiate London without it, as someone who’s come from outside the city. A friend of mine told me to get the app when I got here last year and recommend it to everyone. I use it daily and it’s a total godsend.

Question?

If you had one superpower what would it be?

In Xmen, there's this guy who can split himself into multiple versions of himself. I think he's called Madrox! It would be so good to have multiple clones so I could get more stuff done, so while I'm in the studio there could be another me doing the washing, or shopping, and going out and about to galleries. It would be amazing, it'd be super productive!

23/05/2018

Georgia's Instagram

What would you like for dinner?

Uhmm...well..I just downloaded MyFitnessPal for the 20th time. So i’m gonna have to eat what fits into my calorie count and currently I only have 450 calories left. I eat when i’m sad.

How tall are you?

5ft7…

In cm? … google says 170cm. That’s model material right there!

Haha, its been two years since I went to the gym but I need to start back, genuinely for my performance work. I like pushing myself to limits. My ideal height would be 2 inches taller, that’s like 175 cm.

What was the last thing you created?

My mum gave me a big bag of her old hair and weaves. I‘ve been playing around with that and some conch shells from Barbados where my family are from. So right now they kind of look like little animals. I found animals healing but was only allowed/could afford goldfish and hamsters. I’ve been playing around with that: stuffing the hair in the shells. And I’ve made some engravings on steel plates. It’s all centred around my parents and my core friendship group.

Can you tell us a joke?

The only one I can remember is:

Why didn’t the skeleton go to the dance? -because he had no body to go with. It’s awful isn’t it? I found it in the penguin packets, the chocolate bars.

If you could steal something without getting caught, what would it be?

Uhmmm...money. I’d steal money and I’d make more art from all the money I’ve stolen.

What do you like to wear when you go to work/your studio?

To my studio I end up wearing like leggings and a hoodie, or a skirt and a hoodie. I’m always in skirts. Being as comfortable as possible and also not wearing too nice clothes because they just end up getting messy anyway. This studio is warm, thank god, but in other studios I end up being wrapped up; anything with thermal lining.

Do you do a salary work outside of your art practice?

Of course I do, and for that I have a stricter uniform: it’s black and chique and maybe a little bit sexy.

Are we allowed to know what this work is?

I work in an erotique boutique.

Do you like it?

Yea, the power dynamic is quite different to the past retail jobs or waitressing I’ve done throughout the years where people can talk to you like shit. Whereas in this place people tell you a lot of secrets, they are in a much more vulnerable position at times so they’re nicer to you. How often do you get to know what happens when people get home, in the bedroom etc. The ‘normal’ ones are never ‘normal’.

An artist or mentor you would chose as a godfather/godmother?

‘FORMERLY CALLED’, a collective of Black and brown artists that i’m currently in residence with at Wysing. They’re amazing. All the collective would be my chosen GODPEOPLE.

What would you like to have written on your gravestone?

Wow these questions are quite intense haha...it’s good though because I deal a lot with death in my work. I think I would just like to have it plain and have ‘G’. No age, no nothing. I think I’d just have my nickname ‘G’ and that’s done. Also I think I want to be cremated, graveyards are a tight squeeze you know.

If you could perform with one person for the rest of your art career who would it be?

I think performing with one person for the rest of my career is weird, we’d end up both be annoyed at each other. I think that’s a really hard thing to do. And if it’s a peer or someone I admire, I think in the end it would be stifling. So I guess it’d have to be my mum, it would have to be mamma-G. SHe’s stuck with me, she made me hehe.

Can you share a life hack with us?

My life hack is to have one day off a week. I think it’s very easy when we’re writing applications and stuff to think ‘oh I’ll just do that on my day off, lying in bed’, but that’s still work, that’s still labour. So one day where I do nothing or whatever it is that I want to do that has nothing to do with art (even reading about art). So yes, one day off a week is really beneficial for my mental health. I’ve done that before and ended up not feeling very good at all. I have to enforce it, I have it on my contract, I tell people, I even tell my mum she might not be able to get a hold of me on Sundays.

A question you might want to ask yourself?

If you were to describe yourself in a dance move what would it be?

For me....grinding, body rolls, twerking, whineing up etc etc

15/05/2018

Deo's Instagram

When was the last time you went to an amusement park?

The last time was at Winter Wonderland, in Hyde Park. I went with friends but I didn’t do any rides. I’m afraid of heights, so I don’t enjoy those kinds of rollercoasters.

What did you have for breakfast today?

Um… bread with Nutella. That’s kind of weird.

For us as half-Italians it’s normal...for breakfast with coffee, just perfect.

Yea. I don’t usually have breakfast with bread ,but really had no time for cooking this morning.

The name of your first pet?

I had a dog when I was really young, and his name was Bao. I don’t really know what the meaning of the name is. I remember, he was an Alsatian (German Shepherd). My family were with him for many years. After Pao, we had to move into a city and didn’t have much space for a pet anymore. I do miss Pao sometimes.!

The last video/film/photo that made you cry?

I have to think about it.. I’m sure there’s one, because I’m a very sensitive guy. Oh! It was a movie called the Pursuit of Happiness. I just watched it again for the 3rd time and still cried...every time. It is such an emotional film.


The most played song on your phone?

I’m not sure about my phone but I actually always listen to music on Youtube, and there’s a song that I played, something like 15 times last night. It’s a song called Never In My Wildest Dreams, by the guy of the Black Keys, the singer [Dan Auerbach]. I just found out that he’s doing a single album now, I love it, it’s very good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSHHIPNHIRM

Could you give us a photograph of your last holiday?

A photograph, on the phone yea?

The last holiday...when was it? It was like three days ago, when we got sunshine in London. I had so many things to do, but I decided to not care about it. I went to the park with friends and we sat there, sitting in the sun, talking about the world and life. After, we went to play basketball but I haven’t exercised in many years so I was really tired...But it was awesome to get some sun here, Everything changes!

What is your phone lock photo or background?

It’s a black plain background. Hahaha, sorry guys, nothing so exciting.

Do you think you are generally lucky as a person?

I am. A very lucky man. In many terms... I always feel like I’m blessed to be here, I’m blessed to be doing what I’m doing and to be the person that I am. So that’s a wonderful feeling!

So you believe in luck?

Well, I’m a Christian, so I believe that everything is somehow all planned to be.

Do you have a life hack for us?

Ok: when you’re stressed, just go to sleep. Not necessarily sleep but taking a nap, closing! your eyes for a second and try not to think about anything.!

A question you might like to ask yourself?

It’s very simple but very hard at the same time. Let me think…

What would you like to have for dinner?

I really wanna have some thai food now.

Any place you’d recommend in London?

There are some, the one called Lao Cafe is really nice, very authentic, in other words: SPICY!!

27/04/2018

Virginia's Instagram

What animal are you right now?

Right now, I feel like an animal that is about to go into hibernation, that goes in reverse now that spring is coming. I love spring but I feel like going for a rest. I don’t know if animals can hibernate in reverse.

I don’t think so but there is one hemisphere that is entering winter

Yes, maybe I got the wrong time zone, I should live on the over side of the world, and somewhere warm, maybe. Maybe it’s a special animal that doesn’t exist on this planet yet.

The last song you listened to on youtube?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MCOKMuwKkA

I watched an excerpt of a classical music opera, by this singer called Juan Diego Florez who sing an aria from Orfeo ed Euridice. This is because I recently saw him at La Scala. I thought he was a great singer so I tried to get in last minute and I managed! I really liked it so when I came home I looked for something he had sung live.

Coffee or tea?

Americano... which is a coffee that is a little like tea because it’s so watery.

The last thing you visited on your last holiday?

It was this weekend, I went in Romagna… so, except for ending up at a nude beach with nudists, (10 degree weather), I went to a place with a lagoon. It felt like being in Star Wars, when Luke goes to visit Yoda at his house where trees grow from the water. I won’t tell you how it’s called, I’ll leave it as a mystery. Let’s call it Yoda’s House in Romagna.

If you were a witch what would your favourite spell/potion be?

Let me think… a potion to fly?! I don’t have to give you a recipe right?

Can you give us 3 images/stills of stuff that you're working on?

Your favourite fruit?

Mango!... but mangos like the ones I ate in Israel, because they’re in another league. I’d really eat a mango right now. But no it’s not the right season.

If you could save one of your art works which one would it be?

The video with my grandma making mountains. It definitely has some sentimental value.

Do you have a life hack for us?

Yes..oh no I can’t tell you this one it’s too stupid haha: wearing double socks in winter!

Or actually, I would advise to have a lot of small plants. They make me happy, everyone should have a lot of plants.

One would have to be able to take care of them though.

Then you have to have succulents. So you have something you can take care of, love without thinking only about yourself.

A question you might like to ask yourself?

Well, when I was in Romagna I saw the Ferris wheel of Mirabilandia, this amusement park. So I wondered when was the last time I had been to an amusement park. It’s like trying to track down prehistoric information...well actually now I remember: two years ago I was in Pescara with friends and one night we passed by an amusement park so we just went in and decided to spend all of our time on the caterpillar roller coaster!

30/03/2018

www.instagram.com/anna_frijstein

Do you love penguins?

I’m a bit... It immediately reminds me of my Greek teacher in high school. I started laughing because he really looked like a penguin and he walked like a penguin. So I said to my friend: Oh - mr. Bonn was his name - he really looks like a penguin, and he heard me so from that moment, my grades they really went down.

What do you wish you had learnt as a child?

Electric guitar, I’m still trying to learn but I realized I will never get close to Kurt Cobain. It was also to seduce Kurt Cobain but I didn’t realize he died, so when I found out I was really sad. I’m still trying to learn but I really realize it’s too late.

A drink you are craving right now?

I think it’s a White Russian, but maybe... yes that’s not really true, because you were starting to talk about what you would have liked to learn as a child, a language, so that made me think of Russian and the White Russian drink. Now, I would like coffee, always craving coffee.

If you could design the theme of a video game what would it be?

Marshmallowland... Marshmallow World, where you walk around, yourself as a marshmallow in a marshmallow world. Baby colored: baby blue... baby pink, maybe orange... Nice and soft, fluffy and sticky.

Something that you used have recently started enjoying?

Let me see.. It’s very intimate so I won’t tell you about that [haha]... Maybe peanut butter. I didn’t like it, but now I’m really addicted to it.

What made the change?

When I moved away from Holland, where we have really good peanut butter, called Calve Pindakaas, it’s very good, please look it up. I suddenly started to miss it. So now I’ve been importing and even smuggling it. After my last visit to Amsterdam I tried to smuggle peanut butter and Sambal Badjak (of course not Dutch but Indonesian) back to London but at the airport they were like ‘Sorry Miss, this is way more than 100ml’.... And the measurements were in grams not ml, it’s just stupid, I’m not going to kill anybody with peanut butter. So they took my food but didn’t take my razor blades!

Can you screenshot your desktop for us?

Are you superstitious?

I’m very superstitious actually. I like to believe I’m not, but I really am.

What’s your biggest superstition?

The number 8. I see it everywhere. The loops. I have this thing with palindromes and symmetry, like my name ‘Anna’ when you flip it it’s still ‘Anna’. That loop, I see it everywhere like it’s following me. I once had a drawing contest, as a child, and I won but I won only because I had this 8, I drew the 8 on the back of the drawing. And there is also this astrology newsletter that I really believe. A friend recommended this to me, it’s a guy from New York called Rob Brezsny.

We love Rob Brezsny!

Oh my god! Seriously guys, last week he told me ‘you will have 3 successes’. It started off as a horrible week... I was really sad because I used to love him and believe in him and suddenly I didn’t believe him anymore. But then I got 2 emails and a phone call with good news! I was like ‘Oh Rob!’. A friend recommended him, so no credits to me!

www.freewillastrology.com

The last art show you went to where you felt really uncomfortable?

Maybe it was the last time I was doing a performance. I did it a few times but there was a moment when only 2 people were watching. It makes you really self aware.. I’m really happy that I’m not a painting, you see how people look (or how little they look) at an artwork. That was at the WIP show at the RCA (Royal College of Art).

Life hack?

Yes, I would say, so I live in Brixton and to get to school in Battersea it takes 1hr 15minutes to walk. So during the walk use that time to plan the day and make phone calls with my friends back in Amsterdam. Walking around, you save money and you use that time to make phone calls! And you exercise too!

A Question you would like to ask yourself?

What animal would you be if you were an animal right now?(because you know, it changes everyday). So looking at myself right now on Skype, I would say I look a bit like a frog with a big mouth....but my eyes are really like small, and frogs have big eyes. Maybe also a donkey because I have been think about them a lot recently. So maybe I’d be a donkey with a frog face.

Can you tell us about the donkeys?

So I’m working on a performance which will be sort of a workshop on how to become a donkey.

14/03/2018

www.instagram.com/penguin_luverr

Who do you think you are?

I don’t know, that’s such a hard question. Oh god, I.. who do I think I am. An artist who wants to... no forget that. I think I’m an artist who likes penguins.

What is your favorite emoji?

I don’t really use emojis that much. But when I use emojis i always put a smiley face with three smiles for no reason... because I hate that the emoji comes up without wanting it to be emoji so I always put three smiles :)))

Have you ever witnessed something paranormal?

I have actually. When I was younger, I would always leave my keys in the door, but then my mom would always tell me off. One time I left my keys in the door and there was someone outside and they ran away and I heard stuff downstairs but no one had come in the house…And there might have been an angel like scaring away people, which I don’t know… I don’t know if it was real or not. I think there was a good demon in my house scaring away people who tried to steal my keys.

Cheese or chocolate?

Chocolate, I do like cheese as well but it’s chocolate. Although I’ve had to stop eating chocolate because my teeth are starting to hurt so I might have to switch to cheese, I don’t know.

Favorite chocolate?

I think… it’s a hard question. Salted caramel, anything with salted caramel.

Something that is currently stressing you out or frequently on your mind?

I always get stressed out that I’m not being productive. I’m always thinking I haven’t had a productive day even if I’ve done lots of stuff, that always stresses me out. Even when I’m being productive, I’m worried I’m not being as productive as I can be.

If a pop singer could feature in one of your works, who would that be?

Mhmm, I’ve got my computer, I’ll look at my Spotify list. I think, the Beastie Boys, just because I like that Intergalactic song, that’d be a good song.

If you could chose someone to design your house?

Hmm, maybe some crazy themed film...like Stanley Kubrick, that’d be cool.

Not like the shining right?!

I was thinking more like space odyssey I think, maybe not. I’ll just let him do what he wants.

Your favourite theme park/zoo?

Well, I love penguins, when I was younger my favourite zoo was called Birdland and it was because you got to stroke the penguins. So was my favourite because I got to touch a penguin.

Tell us how much of your work deals with penguins (in percentage)

Well I’ve always liked penguins, so if I don’t know what to do I’ll always associate it with penguins. So probably like 50% of my work is with about penguins.

What are you working on?

I’m writing a short film about a dodo that works in a computer shop. That’s all I’m going to say right now because I’m still writing it.

We’re big fans of dodos here!

I’m still writing it. You know when you’re at that writing stage where you still haven’t formulated everything… I’m going to make a animated story that’s gonna be set in the future but it’s going to be kind of ridiculous with time and so these dodos are going to have giant gloves and they’re going to be fixing old computers. I don’t want to give too much of it away!

Life hack for us?

Yea I do! 2 days ago, no, last week, my grandma got me a diary. Very simple, the last week of my life has been so much more organised because I write everything. So, ‘get a diary! When someone is like ‘are you free next week?’ I get out my diary and feel so much more productive (even though I’m not being that productive) and look it up...It’s a socialcano hehe

Question you would like to ask yourself?

Is this going to be asked again? Yes great:

Do you love penguins?

When did you find out you love penguins?

It all happened when I was 1, my nan bought me a penguin toothbrush holder and I liked it more than any of the other toys that I had. So it was a penguin toothbrush holder and it was Pingu but I called it Kiko. And because I loved it so much, everyone kept buying me penguins. Then Pingu came on TV and I was like ‘yay, I can watch Pingu’...There’s no way out!

28/02/2018

lucageorge.co.uk/

How old do you think you are?

I think I am 27 because I know I am 27. No, yea I know that I’m 27, I’m just gonna answer that. That’s a really rubbish answer, but there you go, my own age.

The ultimate travel food?

I think this is interesting because I once applied for a job as someone who moves trolleys around in a supermarket car park. During the interview they got everyone together, it was maybe 15 people, and asked these similar questions of like ‘What’s your favourite food?’ or ‘If you were to travel somewhere what would you eat?’...and I really crumbled in that situation. I think there’s a way in which you see yourself as mediocre or you become mediocre when someone asks you the kinds of questions that have you think on your feet. In order to get out of that kind of situation you think of the first thing you can think of so you can escape that question.

And so my favourite travel food...I mean, I like fruit...and that makes me seem like a generic mediocre person but I like to eat fruit when I’m traveling.

Yea, so I’m gonna say: A satsuma.

Your dream job when you were a child?

I wanted to be an actor but I don’t think I knew it was a job. It’s just what I wanted to be. I think you learn to answer that question at a young age. Don’t you? And I think that if you say something funny you realise very quickly that you don’t want to say it again because it brings attention to you...but maybe I enjoyed saying I wanted to be an actor because it brought attention to me. Then when I hit puberty I stopped wanting so much attention, so I kind of avoided the question.

Your favourite gif?

It's david beckham and his sons getting covered in gold gunge.

And this.

The most memorable thing you did for valentines day?

It's valentines day tomorrow right? My partner is not mad on valentines day...because she’s much more, uhm, intelligent than other people. I think that I probably had some tragic cinema dates with people when I was younger. I actually went on a valentines date with someone and my mum to see a film, so maybe that one!

Do you remember how old you were?

I was 25 (haha). I would have been about like 9. I’ve always been a really romantic person especially in my youth. I was very emotional and sensitive and I used to fall in love almost every day.

If you could be gifted with a skill, what would that be?

I get quite sad. I think that if I could control that, that would be a hell of a skill. I think there’s a way in which you can take certain things that stop your brain from making you feel sad… but if there was a way in which you couldn’t feel sad it would probably be a nightmare, you’d be like someone with no inhibitions and you’d be awful to be around. The concept of not being sad is pretty blissful though and I’d probably take that.

The most embarrassing object you used for an artwork?

Probably my own body because, honestly, I’m quite obsessed with this idea of embarrassing myself so much that I’m not embarrassed. That question is the answer of my practice in a way...I’m constantly embarrassed. I’m embarrassed to talk about it, you know, especially when people ask me what I’m doing out of the institution or comfort of an art school or art bubble or whatever it is. I think that being alive as someone who identifies as an artist is pretty embarrassing and pretty selfish and it’s a daily struggle.

The best profile to follow on instagram?

Oh come on guys! I actually kind of loathe instagram but I’m very much aware of what it means in my life. I used to not really play computer games when I was younger, I would with other people but I would never do it on my own because I found it unfulfilling, you never really get anywhere, it’s like that concept of the donkey and the carrot. As soon as you turn it off it’s gone. I feel like with instagram I never have any closure and I often behave in like a really erratic way and then regret it. I don’t think anyone should follow anyone on instagram, so I don’t think you should follow any profile on instagram. I think that in 100 years instagram will have come and gone...but I’m on it if you want to look at it, and I apologise for what I put on there.

Yea, we use it way too much…One of us has 4 accounts…

There used to be a thing called bebo when I was growing up. I don’t know if you guys ever encountered it, it was a bit like myspace but you could give each other ‘loves’. So I used to go on my little brother’s account and then give myself a love and then I’d delete it from his so he never knew. I had loads of loves so it made me seem really popular. So I guess that’s the kind of person that I am.

Do you have a life hack for us?

Yea, I think you should not aim to hack your life.

That’s a fuckin' facetious answer haha. You know what, recently I was on a plane and I was listening to some happy hardcore music as the plane was taking off. That was euphoric. It felt like my heart was going to explode so you should do that. I’ll send you a link.

What is Happy Hardcore?

Happy hardcore and also hardstyle, it’s kind of really intense techno music and has a very fast beat-per-minute. It’s very intense and overbearing but to me it sounds like the music of the future. I think that one day people won't be interested in melody but they’ll be interested in syncopation and will only want to experience music texturally.

A question you might like to ask yourself?

I feel like I’ve spoken quite a lot so we’ve covered a few things but if I were to ask myself a question I would ask myself: Who are you?

Do you want me to answer it as well?

Yea…

I’m Luca George.

16/02/2018

www.jungyoonhyen.space

Are you afraid of the dentist?

Yes I am! Super afraid...3 weeks ago when I was in Korea I got my wisdom teeth taken out. They were lying down so to take them out you need to like smash them into 4 piece before taking them out. I hate going to the dentist and dentists really hate me also because I go crazy. I ask so many questions because you can’t really see what’s happening and what they’re using. Like, ‘what are you going to use to smash my wisdom teeth’ and this nurse made a joke: ‘Oh with a hammer’, I was like ‘Oh no!’ but then she said it was a joke…They can see what I can’t see.

The last screenshot that you took?

I’m really interested in screenshots because you’re making a digital object on your phone that just remains as a picture in your photo album. I have plenty of screenshots!

Your favourite superhero?

Maybe Spiderman? I need to think about it…Actually, I really like the 'Sadness' in the Inside Out animation. Maybe it is because people said I resemble her (haha). I kind of liked her laziness and lethargic state. And actually she is the unsuspected hero of the story. This is my Sadness doll.

The best present you ever got?

I think, it’s the best and the worse: On my birthday there is a friend who gives me these presents as a joke to make me upset or something. On the last birthday she gave me a children’s book about this birthday girl who invites everyone to her birthday and then no one comes so she gets really sad. This present was actually the best one, it gave me different feelings...it’s one of those presents that you can’t use. Something that is wearable or something that I can use doesn’t remain a ‘present’ for me, it becomes mine the moment I start using it.

What’s last movie that made you cry?

I saw this movie on the airplane when I was coming back from Korea. It made me cry, I had tears in my eye...It was about this woman painter who struggles with arthritis and she met this guy who was really grumpy and really bad to her but then they fall in love. The film is called Maudie.

What’s your favourite form of public transportation?

I hate the tube. It’s not because it’s dirty or whatever, it’s just because I don’t like the fact that I need to go down and come back up again. Maybe the bus. In korea I always took the bus to go to school, like for an hour. When I’m on the bus it’s the place where I think the most, I go somewhere else in my mind.

A really awesome material you discovered(and started using) in the last year?

Art Material? I liked and started using Silicon, casting it or covering the surface of things. It has really different kinds of textures, when you make thin layers it shines, if you let it dry in the air it stays shiny and if you cast it in something it gets more matt. I also like this milliput thing, it’s like a clay but it gets super solid in like 10 hours. You can make anything. You need to mix the two pieces together and make stuff. You can also carve a little bit later. It looks like plastic after, it doesn’t really look like clay.

If we could gift you with magical powers what would you choose?

The power to move anywhere in like 1 second. What do you call it? Teleportation? That’s the only thing I want as a magical power because I don’t want to read or hear someone else’s mind or anything like that because it would make my life complicated and I would be really confused. The only power that I think is beneficial is teleportation. Then I could just go to Korea to see family in one second, have a meal with Korean food that I cannot get here (like raw fish), and then just come back. Or like if I need to research something and need to see it for real, I’d just go see and come back.

Is there a life hack you would like to share?

Something like: Never believe the person that talks really good...or that is really good at talking. Never believe them. I try not to because I am the person who, when someone is making a joke and says a really random thing, will believe them. I’m really bad at lying so when you’re like that you don’t think someone else will lie to you. That’s why I need to be aware of people who talk really well and who are really fluent in everything. Some other people also told me this, people back home maybe slightly older people or maybe even people like me who are not actually very good at talking.

Question you would like to ask yourself?

How old do you think you are?

You know like I feel as though I have this grandma and this seven year old boy inside me. So sometimes when I’m really hyper with close friends I become a seven year old boy (not a girl, a boy). Then when I think ‘Oh what is life’, ‘Is it all bullshit?’ I become a grandma ‘ You know, just being healthy is the best thing’.

27/01/2018

www.puckverkade.com

Has your work/practice responded to any particular event in the last year?

The first thing I think of is yes, of course. I turned 30 this year, or I knew I was gonna turn 30 this year, it made me self conscious and I have a lot of struggles with the question of reproduction and how that quite possibly would influence my life as a woman. And so, regarding personal events, I signed up to be an egg donor and that resulted in my most recent works which is all about reproduction...All sorts of forms of reproduction, so not only sexual reproduction but also social reproduction and digital reproduction. So yeah quite a particularly personal event, but it's not only personal it's also political, I guess.

If you could be an insect, which one would that be?

Oh cool, uhm...weirdly, the first thing that comes to mind is a grasshopper but I don't know why. Really random answer.

A pair of shoes you wish you owned?

Oh my god. These are all things I've never thought about, even the shoes! My feet are really difficult so every year I buy the same shoes: these, the ones I have on. I almost never wear other shoes. My feet are just difficult, I have really wide feet, they don't fit in like really girly shoes hehe...which is also good because I'm not girly anyway, so it's fine. These are standard brand vagabond shoes. The only thing that I'm worried about is that it's leather and I really don't want to wear leather anymore but, I don't know, I still wear them.

Best horoscope to read/look up? (If you do read horoscopes)

The one that tells me that everything is going to be ok?! This is why you read it right? Because you want to read that everything is going to be fine and you're going to be completely happy and everything will work out. That's what you want to read.

I was reading a book where a girl reads five different horoscopes to choose her favourite, and the one that says that everything will be great.

That's me! That girl's me!

Last google image search?

Oh I do know, ha! It was Saturday evening when I was looking for images of oysters, because I'm making a video with oysters as narrators... So I needed an image of an oyster to animate faces into them and give them a voice. The oyster with all its gendered connotations and its ecological role in climate change is going to be the intertwined thread. I think the new video I'm working on is going to explore the complexities of consent and shame. The oysters are going to give confessional speeches of how they've been assaulted or harassed. There's a scene when they're on a plate, you know with ice, and then they start singing, shouting and crying.

If you could collaborate with any other currently living artist, who would that be?

To be honest, as an artist I'm not the best at collaborating because I kinda need to reach a really weird place in my head to make work. It's a way of getting the demons out I guess, without it sounding too therapeutic, it would be hilarious but impossible to try and share that process with someone else. But in other aspects of my life I love collaborating with people, like when I used to organise techno parties with my friends, or when I teach I feel like that's a form of collaboration as well - those are all forms that seem to come naturally. With art not so much. I totally disagree with myself because I do collaborate all the time! With actors, voice actors and through re-appropriated material. So, no I do collaborate! You see? I'm doing it again, the existential spiral - why can't I just say: Rihanna.

The most memorable wall colour of your bedroom?

Well I once lived in a squat in the Hague and I knew I had to leave because the building was going to get demolished. So I asked all of my friends to come over and spend the night. I asked them to bring markers and to leave messages or drawings or whatever on the walls as I was going to get kicked out anyway. It was a way of saying goodbye I guess...It was ugly haha, it was really really ugly, I was an 18 year old living in a stupid squat place, my friends were not losers but you know...no one really cared. So it turned out to be a really disgusting thing.

One of the things you're proud of accomplishing everyday?

Waking up? I mean everyday is kind of like: Oh I'm still here, yay!

Jennifer Lopez or Madonna?

Madonna. I was a big fan of Jennifer Lopez when she started out but there is no competition, it's just Madonna.

Do you have a lifehack you could share with us?

When you have gum stuck on a sweater or even in your hair you put peanut butter on it! Because of the oily base, it works. You can first put it in the freezer and then you put peanut butter on it and it then comes out. I mean, you can't stick your head in the freezer of course haha. Or you cut your hair, just like I did!

Do you have a question you'd like to ask yourself?

That's hard...I have a tendency to think too deep anyway. So then this becomes like an existential thing suddenly. I can't really avoid it, the problem is that I don't seem to be able to keep it casual. For instance I have a really big problem with small talk. Most of the time I just catch people completely off guard by saying or asking something way too personal. Especially in England, I feel like I've offended people because I'm way too straight forward. I've really tried to tone it down but it's hard.

So I'm not sure what to ask myself...I can ask something practical like:

Why don't you just make an appointment to go to the dentist you idiot? I need to go to the dentist, I've never been to the dentist in England. I'm a little bit afraid because a piece of my tooth broke off and now I'm postponing my appointment.

The question could be: Are you afraid of the dentist?

Yea, ok my answer would be: slightly, I'm slightly scared.

25/01/2018

www.maxcolson.com/

What’s your favourite colour?

I don’t know, it’s probably black just because it’s easy to match things with it and it’s quite neutral...yea...although is black a colour?

If you could have been born anywhere else from your current birthplace, where would that be?

Somewhere in the north of england: Scotland or Glasgow..a different city in the UK (as I was born in London, I’ve grown up in London and I’ve never left the city really). I think London gives a very limited understanding of the UK if you’ve lived there solely (as a lot of Londoners found out in the referendum last year)…. While I am interested in a lot of cultures outside of the UK I feel like I don’t know the UK as well as I should.

A cartoon character you aspire to be?

Probably someone like Wolverine. I’m quite attracted to this kind of intuitive ‘macho-ness’ even though that’s not really who I am, I wouldn’t describe myself as a matcho. I’m very interested in macho culture and heteronormative maleness. Wolverine is someone you’re attracted to and repelled by because he’s a good guy but he kind of flies off the hinge and gets a little bit mad and does stuff without thinking.

If you were a fly, who would you spy on?

I’b be interested to spy on Donald Trump just to understand what is behind the media image of him and whether he actually genuinely spends all his time watching Fox news and getting annoyed that he’s not getting covered in the right way. Just for my own peace of mind I’d want to understand that there’s hopefully someone that has some kind of strategy.

George Michael or Michael Jackson?

Haha...George Michael. He’s someone that was very in control of his image, he was very playful and knowingly playful. Michael Jackson was great of course, in terms of his music (haha) but I just feel as though he was someone who had a massive team behind him.

If you could go on a date with a now dead artist who would that be?

A dead one....I think I want to say Andy Warhol. His work is so relevant now; the way he turned his practice into a business. I wonder what he would think of digital culture...Oh, and I would like to ask him about his relation with Basquiat...it might make the date awkward!

The place where you get most of your work done?

At my desk, in my flat, in my laptop. I don’t have a studio… That’s just a reality of living in London. Everything I do is on my laptop, I’ve never had access to a studio.

The thing that you’re proudest to have achieved this year?

I think winning the Tenderflix prize (....with you! hahahaha). It’s an award that I’ve followed for a few years and people who have influenced my work have won it. I think it’s a really exciting prize because I feel as though the potential for video art as a medium is so great right now with access to production technology.

An instagram account everyone ought to know?

It’s an account run by 2 designers who just photograph packaging left in the street and then tag the designers who are responsible for designing that packaging. I thought that’s a really great way of connecting the work of designers and creative practitioners to wider problems; implicating designers in littering and anti-social behaviour.

Your go-to fast food?

Pret A Manger. The staff project this happiness in a way that’s too genuine like they’ve been too well drilled. I feel a bit conflicted about it because there is a Pret in almost every single new retail development giving no space to independent cafes but. It’s a guilty pleasure!

Do you have a life hack to share with us?

Always put a piece of blue-tack on the camera of your laptop otherwise you never know who will be looking at you.

A question you might like to ask yourself?

Has your work/practice responded to any particular event in the last year?

In my case, yes, a film I’ve just made ‘The Green and Pleasant Land’, it’s being exhibited at Arebyte gallery. I guess it’s a post-brexit film, it’s an animation, a fantasy about British history. It’s a direct response to Brexit but I feel as though it has taken me away a little from my core interest that is the relationship between architecture and built environment, so It’s something I’m going to go back to.

27/12/2017

giulioscalisi.tumblr.com/

How do you read at bedtime whilst lying down in bed?

Actually the reason I read at night is just to fall asleep. I find that it’s a really nice way to induce sleeping. I don’t really read much..I read only when I need some basis or inspiration for my work, it’s not really my go-to or that entertaining for me…unless it’s summer, I really like to read during summer, like after going for a swim and laying in the sun, that’s when I usually read.

What would you do if you weren’t allowed to use a computer for the next 3 years?

Oh fuck! [haha] I guess I’d use my iPhone. Maybe I would draw more or I would start painting...but I would still need to use my iPhone… how could I access all the references I use for my work? I’d have to, there’s no escape from it.

Corgi or Chihuahua?

That’s really hard! Both cute. Corgis can twerk but Chihuahua are more fascinating to me because they’re as big as cats but they’re dogs...and they’re really bitter and angry. So yeah, I think Chihuahua because they’re true jerks (and they’re cat size).

The last thing that you typed into google?

It’s probably really embarrassing. Oh ok, it’s ‘Drake on a wheelchair’... he used to be an actor (in Canada because he’s Canadian right?) in a sitcom there, don’t know which one but he was on a wheelchair. People might get offended, I don’t know, I’m not making fun of the handicap, I was just looking him up.

If you were an important textbook figure (like the ones studied in history books) who would you be?

Let me think about it...because I didn’t really study that much history. Maybe I’d like to be Leonardo da Vinci minus the raping of young guys. I really liked him as a figure... or Lady Gaga hehe [historical].

The top 3 things that terrify you?

You know when elevator or subway doors close, I’m scared that I will get stuck and that they will crush all of my bones. The second one is ‘pigeons’, I mean I love pigeons but I’m scared that they’re gonna hit my face when I’m walking or that they’re gonna poop on me. And the third one maybe ‘dying alone’…really millennial of me.

If you could feature in somebody’s music video, who’s video would you be in?

Either David Bowie’s ‘Life On Mars’ (it’s my favourite video of his) or Rihanna of course, she’s like the coolest person alive right now.

Your favourite TV show villain?

I really really like Bob from Twin Peaks! ...terrifying

If you could invite a living artist for tea and cake who would that be and what sort of cake would you offer?

I don’t know...definitely a red velvet cake because that’s my favourite..but who should I invite? My first thought goes to Mark Leckey because I really like him but maybe not. I’ll say Will Benedict, and I would offer him a space cake (hehe).

Life hack?

Going back to the falling asleep question, actually I always had trouble falling asleep. So I think the best way for me to do that now, aside from reading (of course), is setting up a completely fake story inside my head. What I do usually is put myself inside these environments I’d really like to be in. What I used to do when I was really young was imagining myself inside the Harry Potter castle and I would try to come up with every single detail for the story. Every night I would do that (I don’t do it with Harry Potter anymore) and it would always be the same and I would never get to live inside that thing in my mind because I would just fall asleep in under 5 minutes. So I guess that’s an act people could try if they’re weird enough...

Is there a question you would like us to ask you?

What’s your favourite colour?

I think grey...a 50% grey, not too dark but more on the light side.

Kind of like the background in software for designing in 3D?

Yes, exactly that one!

17/12/2017

Stefania's instagram

How do you find the balance when a work of yours includes or speaks about a specific person you know?

That's a hard question, I was expecting something like: What colour are your socks? Haha..

With regards to this question I'd say that not being 'explicit' is essential and it depends on whether or not this other person is aware of the work you might be creating. I also believe that a balance needs to be found in something that is both interesting to me in terms of the other person or the relationship to that person, but also how this tie might be similar in a viewer relating to the experience. As a viewer, I might not be as interested if I'm not aware of the relationship/bond between the artist and subject.

I was doing this for my thesis piece: My work was about my former roommate. She was still my roommate whilst I was making the work and she was not at all aware of the fact that I was doing this.. Still now the situation is unclear, I always use vague terms.. haha my roommate still doesn't know that she has been the subject of my thesis piece.

One existing building you wish you could live in?

Damn.. I don't know.. maybe In some patio home of Miles Van Der Hoe. Yes, actully I'd really like that: Huge windows and calmness, you really feel calm in there.. I'd watch everything from the windows!

One habit you wouldn't be able to give up on?

Putting an embarrassing amount of pepper on whatever food I'm eating.

The best thing to eat in your hometown?

The tortellini of Modena! No doubts on that one!

What's on Santa's list?

A pair of winter boots for Switzerland. It's so cold here right now..

What kind of boots? Like rubber boots?

No, something a slight bit more elegant. I need to upgrade my current status, I can't keep going around in sneakers (haha)..

If you were to be gifted 3 tonnes of a specific material to make your art, what would it be?

The only thing that's coming to my mind right now is whipped cream. I'm imagining something huge ahaha.. but maybe i should say something a little more serious, in fact I think I'll say amber. Amber is my favourite material right now.

The last thing you liked on instagram?

I'm quite scarce on instagram to be honest. The last profile I followed was victorinioxswissarmy and I think I liked some of their posts.. [checks instagram]
Actually, it's this post by Lorenza Longhi of an art space we opened up within the university (Master Art Visuel, Ecal). The space is called 'wishing well'. Every time there's a post about it from an external person, there are like a thousand likes from everybody in the class.

Is there a language you wish you were fluent in?

Well, English. I really suck at English..

If you had to bring your grandma to an exhibition, which one would it be?

I think to Lauvre Prouvost (the exhibition she did in Hangar Bicocca in Milan). Mainly because that exhibition was on her grandpa, so I feel that it could be something quite interactive where my grandma could have fun without being too perturbed.

A life hack to share with us?

Oh I do something: I peel an egg by putting it in a glass full of water. When you make a boiled egg and then want to peel it, you put it in a glass of water, block the open part with your hand and shake.. the egg peels itself!

Question you’d like to ask yourself?

I hate asking questions.. maybe a breakfast question? Like now I learnt how to eat yoghurt..I never used to have it but it's quite fundamental for me now.. I have it with little seeds, or muesli or whatever.
Actually, one of my big questions these days is:
How do you read at night at bedtime whilst lying down in bed?
I don't think I've found a solution to this, not even coffee helps.. it's quite deadly.. so yea, I'm still looking for the answer.
Before I used to be able to do this but now i can't even watch movies, i just fall asleep mid way through them. Maybe I tire myself out more, but I think I might just be getting old. The cinema for me is just banned, I sleep big time and need to be awoken at the end. We're getting big, we have more problems and are more stressed so the moment we sit down we fall asleep hehe..

29/11/2017

vasilikiantonopoulou.com

Which song do you remember off by heart?

Uhmm..Many songs! I recently went to a Placebo gig, so I’d say ‘Special K’ by Placebo.

Haven’t heard their recent stuff.

Don’t, you will cry of disappointment...

What is your favourite kind of museum?

‘The Museum of Life’, no joking...I guess artist run spaces because you never really know what to expect and you feel more comfortable in them because they don’t feel so sterile. Are they museums though? If not if you mean any type of museum, not necessarily an art museum, I’d say the Geffrye Museum in Haggerston, it’s amazing, it’s all replicas of interiors,it’s a museum on interior design and furniture.

What was the scariest thing you did in the name of art?

Driving in Saudi Arabia...although to be fair it wasn’t in the city but there were some people around. I drove not very far because I don’t know how to drive (haha), it was an automatic car, I drove in a straight line. It was a performance for a video I did about the driving ban.

Is there an app that you hate but use anyways?

My period tracking app called Period Diary and of course the logo is a flower. I hate it because if you get it wrong it ruins the whole cycle, I’ve had to delete and redownload it...I should comment, write a review.

What’s the last thing you ate?

I had a chicken soup from Fulham Tarts. It wasn’t that great but it looked healthy so it was a step up.

The last person you followed on instagram?

Let me check, I don’t remember, I’m actually curious. Ah, it was ‘papalokoparty’, it’s like a queer techno party, it’s actually good! It happens in Angel, in Electrowerkz, it’s great that this place exists, it used to be a massive warehouse/factory and it’s right behind Angel station. They do a lot of parties.

If you were stranded in the desert, what's the one (non electronic) object you'd choose to have with you?

Non Electronic? That’s difficult… A Shovel maybe? I’d dig dig dig until I find water. Is that a thing? Is it possible? At least it would occupy me.

It sounds very creepy, like digging for your grave.

I mean it’s that, either I find water or I dug my grave, it kind of goes full circle.

Cheese or yogurt?

Cheese, I hate yogurt. I’m not a big fan of cheese either but yes, cheese. It’s just with yoghurt, I’ve been traumatised, I’m Greek I’ve had to have it so much that I can’t have it anymore.

What’s the best Zodiac sign? The worst?

Oohh, I’m so into zodiac signs! I’m tempted to say pisces, because I’m pisces but I must say that the best zodiac sign (love and hate relationship but mostly love) is the scorpio. So, the worst, also scorpio.

Life hack?

This is not a hack but I find it really cool, you know those leaves that sting, Nettles, next to them grows the plant that soothes the sting. Isn’t that amazing? But that’s incomplete information so it’s not very useful haha..

Oh I have one actually that has been very useful for when I moved to England: Sticking sharp objects into plugs! You know the plugs, like the ones in Greece that accommodate plugs with two bits (and how those don’t really fit in English plugs unless you have an adapter). Well, you need to insert a sharp object in the top hole and it unlocks the mechanism for plugs to fit into the bottom holes... I hope nobody dies after we give this advice!

Do you have a question you'd like to ask?

A Challenge I am facing now is with work that is very personal and when it has to do with real people? How do you include it in a work in a way that is both comfortable for you and the other person?

How have you been facing this?

Oh you ask, I thought you wouldn’t ask hehe. I use metaphors and little clues, it excites me when I use certain details (even if metaphorical or symbolic) that relate to anyone but the specific person will know that it’s about them because it’s very specific to them. So, the idea that people look at the work and see what they want to see, but that one person knows that that moment that it’s them, that kind of intimacy...

09/11/2017

www.terezacervenova.com

Who’s the last person you felt like slapping?

Ohh… there’s a few. It’s difficult because I wouldn’t go and slap them, but I feel like I just want to shake them… or why is not going well.

What colour are your socks?

Black. They are often black, but I’m trying to change that.

Would you rather own an Anish Kapoor or an Ai Wei Wei work?

I don’t know… I’m not the biggest fan of either of them. I think I’d probably rather have Ai Wei Wei.

A dead person you wish you could have taken a picture of?

Virginia Woolf, first comes to mind. She was so beautiful and I love her thinking.

Your favourite time of the day?

It used to be morning for sure and now... I think it’s actually sunset. So whenever the sun is setting, because in London the sky is always quite magnificent. So yeah, when the sky goes really red, most of the time you have clouds but at the sunset the clouds become an amazing spectacle.

I did take a lot of Instagram stories of the sky, because I wrote my dissertation on my roof, hence the twilight.

The best exhibition you’ve seen this year?

One of the really beautiful ones was of Alice Neel at the Vincent Van Gogh Foundation in Arles, (there was the photography festival on there, which I should be more interested in but I didn’t care about anything because that show was so beautiful). I only just discovered her and I loved it. This one just stuck with me, it was so rough, visceral and honest...and she’s a portrait painter and I’m a portrait photographer (not only, but I make work about people) so that one really touched me! There was this Andy Warhol painting that was unlike any other portrayal of him right next to a Harlem Mother with her child. She really knows what to show and what to omit and I loved how a lot of the paintings were ‘unfinished’ but it was just enough, you didn’t really need anything else.

What are the most comfortable shoes you’ve ever owned?

The ones I’m wearing now! They are from Ecco, and I wish that I had bought 3 pairs so that when these go bad I just have another (haha). They are kind of like boxing shoes...but ohh yea, they are just the most comfortable shoes in the world. As a photographer and an assistant: Shoes are important!

Actually, funny enough, I have another story about shoes. Recently I was commissioned to photograph Julie Verhoeven, she’s an illustrator, wonderful artist and she’s worked in fashion quite a lot so she’s famous for the fashion illustration. Anyways, so when I got the commission, I googled her and I couldn’t believe that one of the first images that appeared on google search images. It was this illustration of a girl that I had taken inspiration from as a teenager, I had painted it on a pair of white sneakers that I owned...and now 10 years later I get a commission to photograph this person! And actually my portrait of this artist looks so similar to my illustration on my shoe!

The one best thing about going home to your family?

The warmth and the feeling of safety in a way that I can switch off. I feel that like when I go back, a big weight gets lifted off my shoulders… where for a little moment it’s almost like being on holiday from being an adult! Ah and my brother!

What TV show would you like to appear on?

I don’t think I would like to appear on a TV show. No. I’d like to be a member of the crew when Simon Schama was doing the BBC series on painters, they were amazing… but I wouldn’t want to appear on one (haha). I don’t really watch TV shows… when I was really low, just finished my BA and had no work, I watched the whole of Dr. House series. It was such an intense and really sad experience and I just I don’t want to fall into that. I don’t really like being in front of the screen, my work is completely non-digital… so I can see the appeal of ‘relax’ by watching a TV show but I’m just not into it.

Life hack?

When you have hiccups: drink really slowly a spoon full of lemon juice.

Is there a question you would like to ask yourself?

I think that a lot of the questions that I would like to ask myself are a lot more on a personal level and I’ve been asking a lot of questions to myself… in the end it’s about being true, true to oneself. Actually, recently I think that I’ve allowed myself to be more open. If you’re trying to be as transparent as you can, you might not need to ask yourself questions… just be open to the questions by others. Lately I’ve been asking myself: What do I want my work to do? It’s personal and autobiographical but at the same time it’s not showing me there...My work is about contemporary moments that I find are beautiful...it’s about care, attention and stopping for a moment.

Actually one other question is that you were selected for the last ‘Bloomberg New Contemporaries’, how’s that been?

It was probably one of the best art experiences I’ve had because we were selected and that was it, there wasn’t one winner. We were really looked after, it felt genuine, the speeches by the chair and the director were touching, we have a saying in Slovakia that says ‘They didn’t put a serviette in front of their mouths’; they were not scared of addressing Brexit or the fact that art schools are getting so many more students and the frustrations of people paying so much more money...they were addressing the core. I was very much in the photography world before coming to the RCA and because New Contemporaries is very wide and doesn’t only deal with photography it’s very different to the previous very photographic competitions I applied to before...I literally applied half an hour before closure! I’m very honoured and happy to be part of it.

27/10/2017

Name's instagram

What’s the fullest you’ve ever been?

I just got back from a little tour of Italy, I went to an Italian wedding and it was the most insane event I’ve ever been to. The church was on top a hill overlooking the ocean in Tuscany, it was attached to a castle and inside this castle there various rooms with different events going on. There was typical Tuscan charcuterie in the courtyard, a seafood section on the terrace, dinner was a 5 different knives and forks scenario, in which I’m not at all well versed in, everything so lavish...it was nice...and because of my slightly adverse opinion on marriage and stuff like that I have to find a way of making it somehow ok for me, so on my shoes (because I had to buy a pair of shoes for this) I wrote in correction fluid (in really small writing) ‘Smart shoes for Weddings...’ on shoe and then on the other: ‘…and funerals’. But yes, I was full.

What behaviours make you think a person is creepy?

I think it would be the polar opposite of what’s conventionally creepy..because I have a lot of the conventionally creepy attributes. I’d say 9-5 jobs and wearing a suit at work I suppose, it’s pretty creepy.

What’s the last thing you fixed?

I fixed a washing machine actually. I think that was the last thing, instead of fixing a cocktail or something like that...I learnt how to do it using youtube tutorials.

A music guilty pleasure?

I try not to say that they’re guilty pleasures...but my go to answer would be Coldplay, the first three albums are fucking amazing, oh and some U2 songs. I guess that would be it, I don’t feel guilty about it; more like what would be perceived as guilty pleasures.

If you got gifted a holiday, what would you do?

Usually when I go on holiday I tend to go alone, in fact I’ve just come back from Bruges. I went on my birthday - a solo mission to Bruges - walking around gothic Bruges, listening to a recently discovered German band called ‘Gas’, some really dark, droney techno from the 90’s...I feel like I’m on holiday all the time, experiences blur into one another, not having a set structure for my life...I guess I would carry on doing what I usually do. I like to joke and say ‘my life’s a holiday…and I want to go home’ sniff sniff...

If you could transform one part of your body, what would it be?

Transform, I guess you’re being clever with the wording; not using ‘better’ or ‘make perfect’...huge tits! No, joking. I guess it would be my spine, from skateboarding 20 years I’ve got an S-curve in my spine due to standing on one foot...I guess I would make my body proportionate and how it’s meant to be. I went to 4 different chiropractors to try and sort it out but it’s an ongoing problem...It’s not like having a gun instead of a leg or anything, but it would be nice.

Your favourite type of cat?

I’m not very good with breeds but my favourite cat is called Beatrix who is white and completely deaf (as I think 50% of white cats are meant to be). It’s crazy because she’s got a constant solemn expression on her face but she’s the happiest cat in the world. She’s also mad on water, so you’ll be brushing your teeth and she’ll be going in the sink. So yeah, it would be Beatrix, I don’t know what breed she is but I think she’s Russian.

If you had an art collection, what would your top 3 pieces be?

This is very difficult to answer, I see no real fundamental reason to own any work, if it exists in the world and I have engaged with it, you have that, which can’t be taken away, though as you gain a myriad of different experiences the work might change for you. There was a time when I really liked Jenny Saville paintings. I remember having a book of hers from when I was around 10 or something. I would just obsess over her work, I remember going to see a solo exhibition in Oxford years after, the anticipation before entering felt similar to the one you have before going to a gig (of a music artist you admire).

But yeah, I think I would abstain from having any art.

One thing people take too seriously?

My immediate answer would be ‘life’. Yea life, themselves, I think there are so many things that people take too seriously, including myself, when it all boils down to it nothing matters, we’ll be in the grave soon.

A life hack you might like to share with us?

I almost feel bad saying these ones because they reveal a slightly sketchy side of my character but: If you choose to steal food from the supermarket, make that supermarket Waitrose or Marks and Spencer, because with the more middle class shopping Centre’s, the weighing scales aren’t as sensitive, so you can bleep 2 packs of salmon through and put them down at one time. I don’t know why exactly, but I guess it's because they don’t want the alarm to go off all the time, they just want it to be a nice smooth shopping experience.

Also, for bunking the Overground, you’ve got to get on and get off stations with no gates (obviously). Sit in the middle of the first carriage, this gives you a view down the whole train and if the ticket officer gets on they will usually turn left to inspect the tickets of the people at the very front, hence your position in the middle which enables you to turn and casually walk down the train when their back is turned. I sometimes pretend to make videos of the views from the train window on my phone, to look like an innocent wondering tourist as opposed to a bunker.

Is there a question you would like to ask yourself?

I try to imagine this as if there were a me sitting there. I guess it would be: What question would you ask yourself? I’ll just have to keep asking it until something happens. But yea, the bigger ones, you know what they are; they can be frightening and fun.

21/10/2017

vimeo.com/user21461262

How do you like your eggs?

A la coque (soft boiled) with ‘mouilletes’ (sticks of toast bread) and butter. You couldn’t find an answer more French...with salt and pepper!

A famous person you wish you looked like?

Looked like? Physically or globally? Physically, Natalie Portman (not very intellectual). If it wasn’t physical, Chantal Akerman (definitely more intellectual).

If you had to burn one of your works which one would it be?

Burn one of my works? All the paintings that are in my apartment that take up space and that I don’t look at anymore. They’re in a big pile. I haven’t painted for five years so now they’re just in a corner and I don’t pay attention to them. I don’t have the heart to throw them out so maybe burning them would be a good way to recycle them. They are covered in dust. They are acrylic and drill paintings: they’re these huge canvases where I painted in acrylic and then pierced tonnes of small holes through them. They’re very light but they’re quite big and take up a lot of room and are too fragile for me to open up and put them in my room...I don’t appreciate them anymore. It’s a problematic painting to burn.

What are you reading?

‘Le petit manuel de la composition typographique’ by Muriel Paris (the small manual on typographic composition). She’s so French, she’s named Paris.

Can you give us a image from your phone from this past week?

Croissants, cake or Ice cream?

Croissants. So French. With an egg “a la coque” and some “mouillettes” (haha).

An artist you’ve been looking up lately?

Clement Cogitore https://clementcogitore.com/

He’s on show at the Bal, and if you pass by Paris you should absolutely see this, it’s incredibly beautiful. He’s the one who made the movie Ni le ciel ni la terre (The Wakhan Front).

What is an everyday thing that gives you anxiety?

Sex.

(Haha) Let me think of another option..maybe starting a new project, I think my work in general, I think about it at night, what I’m going to work on tomorrow…

If you could spend one day with a now dead politician who would that be?

Simone Weil.

The best place in France?

La Ria d’Étel (that’s in Breton, the official name is Rivière d’Étel). It’s a place in Bretagne near the Gulf and the Barbillon. It’s so beautiful, the landscape constantly changes. It’s a lagoon with many different small islands and the water comes up and down, here’s a screenshot:

Would you rather lose your laptop or lose your family photos?

My laptop. There’s nothing inside my laptop because I have copies of my work everywhere. I often make copies and delete folders. Actually once I deleted an important folder with texts I had written; recently I looked everywhere for those texts as I’m trying to build my website but I can’t seem to find them, I must have deleted them by accident. I’ve tried retracing them in my inbox to see if I sent them to anybody by chance but no…

You’re making your own website?

Yes, that’s why I’m reading ‘Le petit manuel de la composition typographique’! I’m trying to find a graphic identity. I find that many artist websites look extremely similar, it’s always this very clean looking modern typography with the little icon on the left and the slide of images on the right. I’d like to work on something a little more fun with gifs and other elements. It’s delicate because it mustn’t give off fake impressions (for instance: it mustn’t look like a fashion website)...it’s complicated, I still haven’t found the answer. I work a lot with image textures I’m thinking I might use textures in the background extracted from video frames or pixelated qualities from images zoomed in.

Like Hack?

How to cool down a beer very rapidly: You wet paper towels with water and wrap them around your beer. You then put it in the freezer. It cools down twice as fast as if you don’t use the wet towels. It works!

Is there something we didn’t ask you that you’d like to ask yourself?

Who’s the last person you felt like slapping?

My previous boss. I was working in a production company, we went to Cannes together, just before the Festival de Cannes he used to call me everyday until 11pm to re-work the design on invitation cards etc. I got so fed up that I refused and the day after I refused I got a little note on my desk saying ‘You can go fetch my shirts at the dry cleaning place’. Since then I quit (haha)!

28/09/2017

Isabella's instagram

Do you think that you perform for social media?

Not really..not at all. It’s an interesting question but I don’t believe that I perform for social media. I like to think that I have more of an ‘outsider’ point of view in terms of social media; I’m interested in it but I’m not part of it. And if I’m part of it, I wouldn’t call it a performative action but I’d call it something different...Well, like it do it sometimes with the eggs but I’m also very conscious of the fact that I don’t want to be doing a performance (with my body, selfies etc.) on social media.

What’s your latest guilty pleasure in terms of item of clothing?

I did buy a few things in New York when I was there...In New York everyone was crazy with sales and it made me super anxious. I remember I spent one whole night thinking that I had to buy something just because of sales and I ended up not sleeping because I got really anxious. My latest guilty pleasure would be these Gucci sunglasses, they’re really amazing! Of course I didn’t buy them, they were like €400…

What’s your favourite sweet and salty dish?

Sweet plantain chips with goat cheese! I just had it in Venezuela and it reminded me of my childhood...I was like omg I need to eat more of this but of course you don’t find the sweet ones in Europe; the green ones are the ones you usually see in Latin American markets but the other ones you only find them in Caracas. That dish is amazing, that’s the one for sure.

Can you describe your instagram account in 3 words?

Melting - Eggs - Sexiness

What animal would you feature in an art work?

A frog. It just came to my mind, but yes, I guess a frog. A very slimy frog. I love the hands of the frog (do you say hands?). I find them really sexy. I’d get like a really cool one with a shiny colour and slime...and I’d go for a really small frog, not the big ones, that’s disgusting. I’d choose a very sleek and smooth little frog.

What’s the last thing you watched on youtube?(no cheating)

Oh yea [haha] there’s this new Reggaeton album by Ozuna that’s amazing:

If you could work with one famous artist, who would that be?

I think Alex da Corte. I met him in New York, he’s so nice and really cute person. So yea, I guess him because of the aesthetic and I think it would be really interesting to work with him in space; on making a space.

What bothers you the most at 7am in the morning?

Not having avocado in my house and not being able to have avocado in the morning. When I’m really hungry and I want my eggs with avocado and I don’t have them...I’m just ‘fuck I need to go out and buy them...Or when the avocado is not ready to eat, that’s just fucking fucked up haha. Not having avocado and having to leave the house to go buy them, or not having eggs...I guess just not having a complete breakfast, that’s just sad and I get really pissed.

Gold or silver?

I think silver...melting silver.

Any good life hacks?

I think it’s related to food, as always. I hate the garlic smell on my hands, my grandma always says this: after you chop garlic, you rinse your hands under cold water (don’t use soap) and then clap, like an actual round of applause, your fingers need to be open. And that actually works, it’s really funny because it does work. You’ve never done it before?! Oh and you must not dry your hands with a piece of cloth, you dry them, by clapping.

Something you would like us to ask you?

How do you like your eggs? I like mine boiled. I’ve discovered that like 5 minutes 35 seconds is the perfect egg cooking time for me. Sometimes you cook it somewhere else, you boil it in another house and the timing is different...then sometimes it overcooks, the egg gets too hard and I get pissed. I like my boiled eggs really soft and runny.

09/09/2017

www.norasilva.com

Do you like street signs?

Yes, I guess so. I’m a bit obsessed with ‘safety’ so I always look at signs (like the ball games ones) that are in london in all the council flats, and in like basically every public space. There are signposts with regulations of what you can and cannot do. In London I find that everything is incredibly regulated, especially in public spaces.

If you had to chose your last meal what would it be?

I have already thought about that! I would have a Spanish omelette (the classic one with just potatoes, onions and eggs). And I would also have tomato salad, but not just any tomato salad, it needs to be with the incredible tomatoes you get in Spain (I’m guessing that in Italy you have them as well). They’re really huge and ugly but on the inside they’re so rich and intense that they’re almost burgundy... It just brings tomato to its highest level of accomplishment. For me that’s my last meal.

I think this is the most Spanish answer I could come up with! And it’s funny because actually the potato and the tomato are Mexican but they are the main ingredients in Spanish cuisine.

If you owned an object with superpowers, what would that object be?

I think something related to sustainability and climate change because that’s one of my main concerns at the moment (my dad works in this domain so I’m quite aware of it). Possibly a machine that creates local produce in everyone's homes and that at the same time recycles the soil...that way we don’t need a food industry anymore, we’d produce our own food in our own homes...the food industry is a huge component of the damage we’re doing to the earth. I think this self sustainability would help climate change quite a lot.

What’s your most popular self portrait on Instagram?

This one is related to my art practice:

And this one to my music:

Insert a screenshot of the last thing (movie/ tv show/ video) that made you cry

Oh, I cry with an advert so that’s super easy! Adverts that show a family with a mum that’s moved because her son is coming home...in advertising they know how to generate empathy like that. In any case, this is the last movie that made me cry a lot:

If you were cooking for 4 famous people at one table, who would they be?

Do they have to be alive?

No.

So, I’d like to cook predominantly for women. They’d be: Angel Olsen, she’s alive, she’s a musician and I really like her music and her lyrics. Then, Frida Kahlo, I mean it’s a cliche but she’s the feminist I admire the most. Hannah Arendt, she’s an incredible philosopher, the discussion would suddenly become quite serious but whatever..and maybe my great great great grandmother, just to see who she is.

If you invented a cocktail, what would you call it, what color would it be?

I have actually invented quite a few cocktails in my supper club but they were always based on the work of the artists I was working with. The cocktail I’d invent now would be something sort of related to brexit...Oh, I would call it Post-truth! Something really sweet but at the same time really bad for you, so it’s easy to drink but it just corrupts your stomach..something like that. And it would be the most popular colour of them all, which I guess is like pink or red... a bright colour that traps your eye: fluorescent pink!

One exhibition you wish you hadn’t seen?

That’s a tricky question because I only remember the exhibitions I liked, the other ones are kind of faded in my memory. When you have an idea of what an artist’s body of work is like but their exhibition is just another one imitating displays and standardised strategies it’s something that can leave you disappointed. So it’s just some sort of realisation of this artist you thought was revolutionary but they’ve just blended in with the rest of commercial artists….Oh, I thought of one: Damien Hirst! This was ages ago, I discovered his work in uni and I was quite impressed by it (the cow and everything…) then I went to see his exhibition, it was a huge one, he had all this gold, very over the top, it was incredibly vulgar. I was like ‘this is not what I thought it was’...it was quite an awakening. It’s so obscene and dramatic that it appeals to some sort of maybe sublime kind of concept of what art can achieve by being overwhelming but at the same time it’s just obscene..but at the same time it doesn’t mean that it’s not impressive.

You’ve just graduated right ? Do you know what will you be doing next?

This is a question I have been asking myself for two months! (haha) I have always had my priorities very clear: I know that I want to be an artist, I guess the struggle comes when you try to find the balance between your day job and your art practice, it’s a classic right? I have recently formed a band (Coskeyass), I would really like to merge my art practice with my music practice to make some form of touring-art-exhibition-concert. I have been applying for many jobs but I think I’m going to end up working as a chef again which I guess makes sense...what I want to do after graduating is to continue making art work, focusing on my band and trying to merge these practices, the way I have of making money to sustain this is usually through food: I’m either a chef of I have my supper club and I have plans to make it bigger (maybe transform it into an art residency)..I’ll just keep trying really.

Do you have a life hack you’d like to share with us?

I’m going to give you two answers. One is really obvious but nobody does it: how to chop an onion properly! It’s really simple, you peel it first and you cut it in half across the ends (without cutting off the ends). People usually do the whole thing and then it falls apart and you kind of try to hold it together..but if the end is still there it holds it all together and it’s so good, absolutely necessary in everyone’s lives.

Here is a link that shows what I’m talking about:

The second life hack is something that has helped me a lot: my SAD lamp. It’s for us from the south, suffering from the lack of sun...it has saved my mood so many times. I use this lamp when I’m reading, working, whenever I can (I have also used it in my work). It’s this very very bright white light that simulates the light of the sun...great for when it’s a very grey day in London and you need that amount of light.This is maybe for foreigners who have nostalgia of the sun.

Let’s keep it at the onion and the sun.

Is there a question we haven’t asked you, that you’d like to ask yourself?

Something I ask myself (that I try to prevent or control) is: Do you think that you perform for social media? In the sense that you portray a version of yourself that you wish to project or. Or how manipulated or manufactured is that image? By you or the media? What kind of image am I giving through my Facebook or through my Instagram and if someone who doesn’t know me has access to that (quite personal information) who am I? When I take a selfie I think ‘oh this doesn’t work’, but why? Am I curating myself? This is like a daily performance for this invisible audience.

My response to the question would be: Yes. I am performing all the time for social media and it is so paradoxical because social media is aimed to bring your intimacy closer to other people but in a way it distances you from yourself. It’s like publishing an extra layer of imagery of this created intimacy that you are putting out there. I think very much of ‘what is going to work on instagram’, ‘I can’t put too many selfies in a row’, ‘I need to put a bit of art work, a bit of selfies etc.’ That’s going to make me look like ‘the artist’, ‘the person who is behind it’, ‘the singer’...all these things that you want to project. I think it’s scary.

21/08/2017

Aldo's Instagram

What did you lose recently ?

I cannot currently think of anything specific or absurd, because (there’s a reason) in the last years I’ve lost crazy amounts of stuff...like IDs and mobile phones, the usual stuff. So because of this, I’ve tried to set my things up in a way as not to lose them. I can’t remember the last time I lost something...at least something physical that is...

If you could bring one movie with you on a desert island (please be honest)?

Fuck, the movie… I can’t even remember the last film I saw. This is difficult...I’d say ‘Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)’, as it’s one of the movies I remember because I liked it. In fact it’s a movie I really liked, it’s the kind that keeps you company (on an island). I could’ve answered this question with TV shows (as now I’m really into survival, fishing and those types of shows) but then my answers might become incredibly trivial. Like, you’re already there working like crazy and trying to survive only to watch others in your exact position working like crazy and trying to survive...

Nutella/beer: If you had to eliminate one of these from you life for ever which one would it be?

Nutella, yes. For survival reasons; beer quenches your thirst and it’s more useful generally. If you had asked me to chose between a variety of spreads, I would have chosen Nutella, no doubt.

What’s the last thing you liked on instagram or Facebook or both?

A video you can find online that everybody ought to see.

The last thing you read/you’re currently reading?

The last one, I read ten minutes before starting this interview with you. I was reading an article that came out on Artribune talking about a book that focused on failure in a moment of “post everything”.

Which artist would you go on a date with?

This is hard, uhmm.... I would answer with Jonathan Meese, because it would be a crazy date. Otherwise Rihanna.

If you could work with only one material what would it be?

It would be iron or metal in general. I had started a work with drawing and sculpture made out of forged cast iron. It cost a crazy amount, between 5000 and 10000 euro to make one sculpture. I didn’t do it in the end. So, iron would be great.

It’s August. What are your holiday plans? Did you already have a holiday?

I was with my family at my hometown’s local fair for 10 days (in Canale). And now I’m going with my girlfriend to the lake of Como to then head to Salento, in Puglia. There I hope to turn off my brain. You are the last thing linking me to civilization, my last official commitment before the holidays.

Best reason to live in Milan?

The amazing amount of people you can meet and things you can do (this is coming from a person who grew up in a tiny town). It can feel like a big city but in the end it’s quite small. By bike you can go from one side to the other in 40 min. It’s manageable and yet has lots to offer. A reason not to live in Milan is that, as you can see I’m dripping, it’s August, it is 40 degrees celsius right now, but for a human being it feels like it's about 50. That’s why I’m running away.

Life Hack?

I go crazy for videos like “how to open a pen in 20 different ways” they're amazing. However the best thing I’d advise right now, since it’s August and some people go camping, is the camping fridge. Basically, you make a pretty deep and big hole in the ground, you place a plastic bag inside and then you cover it. It becomes a fridge next to the tent. It doesn't cool anything just keeps stuff at a good temperature. At festivals it works great.

A question you’d like to be asked?

Nothing good comes to mind. A question could be: why do you like street signs this much? It’s something I regularly ask myself. The answer… I don’t really know but I’m especially in love with the base of street signs (I don’t know if you’ve seen my pictures). I like the blocks used to stabilize them, some crazy things, or objects created specifically for that function (made out of cement or iron). They are beautiful: spontaneous sculptures.

07/08/2017

guendalinacerruti.com

When will you stop being so obsessed with food? (Are you obsessed with food?)

I don’t think I’m obsessed with food, even though I’m very picky. I have to say that this year I have been very obsessed with food in the sense that everyday for lunch I’d have the same thing: I’d buy these packaged vegetables, warm them up in the microwave and I’d also buy a hotcake and an apple…because I thought all of this was more healthy (haha). I quite liked having this routine because it’s just something this certainty that at noon when I had my break I knew what to eat, where to buy it, how many minutes it had to be microwaved…

And what if the supermarket had run out?

I would’ve probably eaten at McDonalds (hahaha). This was during the week though, not weekends…on weekends I generally have pizza…to catch up on the calories.

Your cartoon crush?

Like crush (in love), that I was in love with?

Yes

I’m not sure.

Maybe more than a crush, it’s the idea that you identify with the character; you love them because you want to be them. In that case my character would be that troublemaker from Treasure Planet by Walt Disney. He’s the super cool one with all the flying skateboards and his little ponytail and crop top and overall strange look. He believes in finding this treasure since he was small, it’s great, the aesthetics are weird (a sort of cyborg-fornarina mix) if you haven’t seen it in a while I strongly recommend it!

What’s the thing that you buy most often? (That is not a basic necessity)

Since I have an Amazon account, everything I buy is basically not a necessity! Anyhow I regularly buy those present balls from dispensers (the ones with little toys or necklaces and rings). If not I buy things at the cashiers in the supermarket (that aren’t necessarily candies or chewing gums) like fake tattoos, collection cards or Hotwheels. I do this, I think, to understand better what attracts me most. Oh, and kinder eggs of course…but honestly, I think of those as a necessity.

If we were to gift you a flying ticket to fly out tomorrow, where would you go?

I would go to Seoul. A lot of my current friends are from there and I’ve had a lot of friends during my course at the RCA who are from South Korea and I’d really like to go! I find the culture quite fascinating. It’s true that a lot of my friends come from a mixed background and they’re very occidental orientated, nonetheless there are some aspects in the ways of our relations that have made me curious. We’ve had the best laughs, the best bellies full of Korean sea food pancakes and the best conversations, I’ve found in them a special sensitivity and I’ve always felt deeply loved. Also, I’d also like to go to better understand the pop culture, and the standards of beauty (the body treatment and aesthetics). It’s fascinating how there’s an attraction to the idea of cuteness; for instance in that of the image of the male singer in the musical industry of K-pop.

What’s your spiritual animal?

I know it! So many people have asked me this in the past two years, so I’ve had to think about it! I think my spirit animal is a little monkey…I have the face, I have long arms, I’d like to have their posture. I quite like monkeys, they’re active and curious.

Could you share with us some frames of your latest instagram Stories?

Here are two screenshots. The first is the Miami one, I love taking selfies under the palms near my place in Vauxhall and saying that I’m in Miami. I also tag myself and always say that I’m on holiday busy getting a tan. The second one is me and the London eye. I’ve recently been dwelling on the practices of self documentation as a way of reinforcing contemporaneity: exploring the communication of the self in the digital era.

Who’s the most fun to follow on instagram according to you?

Let me have a quick look and then I’ll get back to you.

Ok, so the profile I find fun is ‘Hipdict’.

What would your Pope name be?

I would like to keep my name, so that would be Guendalina. Then I could put a number like ‘the third’ [or terzo in Italian, terzo thus of male gender]. And then...what’s generally used?

Something for which you are recognised, like Pio 11th the Murderer (hehe).

Ok, so I’d like to be ‘Guendalina 3rd the Cutest Ever’.

Would you rather have a Cattelan golden toilet or a Damien Hirst shark?

The Shark I think. It’s pretty impressive, I think it’s more impressive to me than a golden toilet. It could be more fun during a party, like people could chuck things in and try to break the glass...rather than trying to find the bathroom and finding the golden toilet.

Life hack for us?

I have been attracted to these things for the past year, I’ve saved them on my facebook, let me have a quick look. So, this is a life hack that I found on how to eat a hamburger properly, it works!

What would you like us to ask you?

This year I have lost 3 pairs of sunglasses and 3 pairs of earphones! So, I guess my question would be: What did you lose recently?... I lose my sunglasses because I always put them on after I drink a bit (haha). This idea of putting on your glasses when you are drunk is something I find so trash, I have no idea where my impulse comes from!? (A super Italian thing to do!) And even earphones as objects are super easy to lose because they’re small, you put them down somewhere or in your pocket. It’s terrible to have to head home without the possibility of listening to music because you don’t have your earphones!

24/07/2017

Stefano's Youtube Channel

What is the last thing you bought?

I bought foundation from Wycon, €6.80. My new passion is makeup and beauty.

If you weren't an artist what would you be doing?

Oh god. Hmm...anything really. In my life I’ve tried so many different things and I’ve tried to embody many personas: like, I’ve tried to be an engineer, a mathematician, an architect etc. but it all went pretty bad. The artist profession has treated me quite ok...maybe...

Pizza or cake?

Ahh (horrified). Pizza. It would be nice to make a cake out of pizza.

If you were only allowed one cake for the rest of your life which one would it be?

I think it’s the most difficult question anyone has ever asked me. If I have to pick one hmmm...actually, the cake that my partner Filip made for me for my birthday (that was like two weeks ago) is made up of 12 different cake slices. However, this way I’m ignoring your question, if I really have to choose, I’d probably pick a cheesecake. I think cheesecake contains both the aspects of sweet and salty food…eggs, cheese, everything, *wow*

The one thing you would like to be remembered for?

I’d like to be remembered not so much for the things that I’ve done on an artistic and musical level but rather as a pleasant and lovable person by my friends. Many artists make really great and cool things but then when they pass away they’re not truly missed and so maybe it was better for them to die in the first place. I don’t want to be that person, I want to be remembered as a fun person.

What would be written on your tombstone?

I think I’d put what I have on my Whatsapp status: ’Pizza and Sailor Moon’. That’s it.

Your last (musical) guilty pleasure?

Oh I have so many! Ok, there’s this one single by Alessandra Amoroso (this really cheap Italian singer) and there's this album I really love by Sharon Needles who is a drag queen who won RuPaul’s Drag Race like 5 years ago.

Send us an edited screenshot of you right now (with as many stickers as you want).

A still you fell in love with recently.

If you had an art collection, what would be the number 1 piece?

The strongest piece of my art collection would be the installation of the huge penis by Simon Fujiwara: Phallusies(An Arabian Mystery). It was exhibited at the Giò Marconi gallery years ago. That exhibition made me fall in love with contemporary art.

Do you have a life hack for us?

To sweat less. So like now in Italy it’s really hot and everybody is sweating so much. In general sweating is really disgusting, everybody hates seeing other people sweat and everybody sweats.

So, you can do 2 things: First of all, equipping yourself with specialized makeup products or if you have more money you can do botox shots to stop the excessive sweating. One thing I like to do is put on a hydration cream with this very peculiar dabbing technique where you tap areas of your face with the tips of your fingers in order to reactivate the microcirculation. Only then you apply foundation and spread it (if you don’t have money, you can use a leaf from a random plant or even an eggplant). Once done, you apply transparent face powder in order to make everything set.

You can also frighten people with your makeup: cover your eyebrows and put on huge glasses. So, when you walk into a shop and the girls says ‘hi’ you look at her over the tip your glasses and you scare her. I think frightening others can help you avoid the heat.

*To cover your eyebrows, you need makeup, makeup glue, other things...hours and hours of explanation, there are plenty of tutorials out there.

What would you like us to ask you?

When does one stop being so obsessed with food?

Your response?

Oh no, I also have to reply?! I think after a cancer or after a serious illness. If one day I’ll be feeling really really bad, then I guess I'll stop thinking about food.

24/07/2017

www.caterinagobbi.com

Do you have a current obsession?

More than one probably...knowing me...I have to choose one?

Yes

Probably those shoes, uhmm what are they called, Raf Simons for Adidas. They’re amazing also because they’re called oswego bunny.

Milk or juice?

Juice.

...great question guys.

Somebody who deserves to be googled.

Myself! No, of course I’m kidding….hmmmm...M¥SS KETA. I should just be her PR, the number of fans I got her is quite something.

Who is M¥SS KETA for those who don’t know her?

Miss Keta, oh it’s difficult to describe..she’s a singer but not really, there’s a collective behind the whole thing called Motel Forlanini. She’s a bit like the apotheosis of Italian trash (Italian trash from Milano). So she describes, with very catchy beats, things that happen but also behaviours of the Milanese people...of course, in a really ironic and super-pushed way, as in, she never shows her face and one of her songs is called ‘Burka di gucci’.

Mountain holidays or seaside holidays?

Ah, depends if it’s summer or winter.

...good answer, very good come back (K-tsch).

An artwork that disconcerted you the most in the past year?

Richard Mosse, the video at Barbican, I forgot the name of it. I thought there were some ethical issues...capitalising (or making money) on people’s suffering, without necessarily doing anything active to counterbalance it.

The last song you played on your spotify.

Chanel by Frank Ocean.

Your favourite place in London?

Aha, there are a few…Richmond park.

If you could pick an astrological sign?

Oh this is a great question!...hmm

Also which one is yours?

Scorpio but I’m aquarius, my ascendant sign is aquarius and it’s really strong. If I have to pick one...I like mine...maybe capricorn?

Some recent photos of the ‘behind the scenes’ of your art practice you’d like to share with us.

What’s the last thing you bought online?

Almost the shoes! They’re still in my cart (haha), I didn’t check out yet. Oh, some free rings! I saw them on a Facebook ad, like ‘we’re giving away these free rings’ and you just have to pay for the postage. They’re like a set of rings of these people that help turtles (haha).

So you just paid for the shipping. The last thing you bought?

The book that Kaleidoscope made about the shoes: Le Silver!! You know I went to Footlocker to try some TN (Squalo) to see how they looked on my feet and the guy(super british) working there asked me ‘are you Italian?’. Even Italians don’t think that I’m Italian...but then I thought possibly only Italians buy those shoes!

Didn’t  know they still existed..quite timeless

Do you have a  life hack you could share with us?

Hahaha...Using the bathtub as the bidet! Because they don’t have bidets here(in London)! (Such an Italian answer). Or also, going to Waitrose (the supermarket) and getting free coffee. If you’re a member and you buy something, they give you free coffee in a cup that says ‘Waitrose’...but if you just go back with the same cup then you can get free coffee!

Do you have a question for yourself that we didn’t ask you?

Yea, you asked me what I bought online but not what was the last coolest thing I bought (without it necessarily being online). A Synthesizer! A Korg Volca Sampler, I bought it from a guy physically...not online.

What are you using it for?

B-tss b-tss b-stt..beats. It’s a sampler, so you can load your own samples on it and you can just play. You can play live without a computer, it’s great….I’m playing with it for now but you can actually make songs out of it. It’s part of a series, there are like six different ones and you can connect them all...soon soon..one at a time.

19/06/2017

edoardomanzoni.tumblr.com

If you could only choose one dog breed which one would it be?

Great Danes. Oh no, wait, Sighthounds! Yes, Sighthounds...I don’t know why I said Great Danes, they terrify me.

City or countryside?

City.

Country to find inspiration and City to work. In the city it’s easier to find ways to make your ideas happen.

One skill you’d like to master right now?

Maybe being able to construct more things on my own… I have many visions but I’d love to have more manual skills.

To make what more precisely?

To make sculptures. Actually, I’d like to make these huge sculptures in plastic materials but I still haven’t figured out how.

Have you ever thought about a rapper name? (If you haven’t got one already)

Of course I have one (haha). It would be ‘ELK’.

Like the animal?

Yes yes. Then that name also has its variations such as ‘ELKO’. I’ve always liked it.

Not Dr.Manzo? (...beats by Dr.Manzo)

No (haha), that has been my email for way too many years. Maybe Dr.Elk...no, but it sounds a bit too much like a cartoon character.

Nutella or peanut butter?

Nutella. I’ve barely ever had peanut butter, I don’t even know if I really like it.

The best person to follow on Instagram ?

The best person? Rapper’s instagram stories are the best way to clear my brain when i’m tired, I advise it. Rappers with big necklaces.

Screenshot of the last video you saw on youtube:

Photo with the most likes (both Facebook and Instagram):

Best show you saw in the past year?

I knew you would have asked this.

We’re predictable.

Humm. What did I see last year? I really liked this one, at Hangar Bicocca, of Laure Prouvost. I really like how she thinks about display, how in the videos there was sculpture... and we talked a lot about her.

Could you please share with us a life hack?

Ok.. So i’m really superstitious. I don't know if it makes my life easier, but I’m really superstitious and I use… I always choose a one euro cent coin from my wallet and I keep it, I separate it from the others and I put it in my pocket and I keep when I have to do important things. So I’m kinda obsessed with these cents and i’m also putting them in my works.

Does it work?

Maybe so, well i don’t know. It works because I believe that if I a have one cent in my pocket things go well. It’s all belief. I’m also obsessed with magic lately. I’m studying some magic, even country/peasant/rural/farming magic (magia contadina in italian, not easy to translate directly ). But the cent coin one has always stayed since I was little. So.. I do it. I have always been attracted by the one cent, it’s so small, it’s beautiful. And now maybe they want to remove them, they won’t exist anymore.

What question would you want us to ask you? And could you answer it.

My last obsession? I would like to talk about Bruno Gironcoli, I just found out about him and I went crazy, to make these kinds of sculptures I think he must have been abducted by aliens.

05/06/2017