|
For some artists, working in front of others is like trying to pee standing next to someone taller. Luckily, this is not the case with JEEPdaFREEK, who prefers to use a private stall. With the might of Chivas on his side, this gas mask-clad Quebecois regularly performs live graffiti pieces before crowds of clubbers across Asia. As he prepared for a showcase at Bangkok’s Santika club last night, we kept interrupting him so we could tell you his secrets.  How would you describe your current style of working? In which mediums do you most prefer to experiment at the moment?
Reprographics is my main thing. I collect pictures from all over the place, wherever I travel, wherever I wind up after a long black spell in the land of masochist dwarves and silver ponies. I usually wind up with tons and tons of images/evidence. What I like to do is reproduce these found images using any medium available and mash them all together so that they form a kind of layered narrative. Like looking into a room of veils.
For live graffiti demos I like to keep the show moving at a fast pace. I will use stencils or paste up prepared image blow-ups. It might get kinda messy, but its fun. The layers quickly build up. I don't prepare too much in advance, allowing the mood/genius/loss-of-control/stimulants to guide me.  Your last live graffiti piece was at ‘The Fort’ in Manila. Do you ever feel a little like Rolf Harris when there's a crowd watching you?
I love Rolf and I only wish I could be as cool as he was. Man, the 'fro, the pipe, the velvet voice, who needs ganja when you got Rolf to soothe you on a Sunday afternoon public TV marathon? I love making shit with people watching me. Maybe it is Rolf's fault, but I hate how lonely it gets emulating the solitary genius locked away in a tower of silence only to come out from time to time to show the world what I have evacuated since my last appearance. Naw, its way cooler to get messy with a bunch of new friends watching! One day I will smoke a pipe on my own TV painting program and then, only then will I know that I have arrived!
Indeed. It seems that Rolf has touched a great many lives, but which other immortals have come to inspire you?
Well, I like all kinds of messy pop painters like Sigmar Polke, Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly, Basquiat and Warhol. These are the grandaddies of pushing popular imagery to the limit. Banksy and other contemporary street artists, no matter how clever or admirable, can only follow in their shadow. I love street art but I hate tagging. I 'm so impressed the weird dreamscape images created by the likes of Faile, P7, Miss Van, etcetera.
Could you tell me a little about your last gallery show in Bangkok.
The last show I did was a fairly traditional event: Genius artists defecate on canvas in their rooms and then hang it up in a gallery. OK, it was actually a lot cooler than that. I was showing some paintings alongside P7 in the HOF Art Centre. I had two series of paintings on display. One showed humans torturing animals in splattered cloudy spaces. The second was a series of collaborative works I did with the Japanese Suibokuga Master Painter Shukoo Tsuchiya. He is a classically trained ink brush artists with a love for graffiti: he manages to combine it all! We would both start painting separate images, then switch and finish each others work. It was really cool because we drew all over each other's stuff just as you do when throwing up a tag on the street. The outcome was wild and frenetic, frantic. I love those pieces.
What are your thoughts on the art scene in Bangkok and Asia? Do you go to many galleries yourself?
Its kind of weird to attend art shows in shopping malls, but I try to go out as much as I can. I'm floored by some of the contemporary Chinese art I've seen at Tang, I like the photo shows at Tamarind. I go to everything Thaweesak Srithongdee does, the HOF Art Center, H Gallery and Eat Me are also pretty good. Hey, its not Soho London, but I get it!
With drinks involved at your live demos, it must be hard avoiding art world groupies when the boiler suit comes off. What's your secret?
Why the hell would I avoid my fans? The more, the messier, the better! My secret is to paint in the nude, that way when the ladies spill my drink, I don't get my threads stained.
 JEEPdaFREEK’s next Graffiti Demo gigs will be on December 8th and 9th in Shanghai and in Kuala Lumpur in January. Email
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
to make contact.
Interviewed by Laurie Osborne
 |
