Wednesday 30 April 2008

José Saramago - Fernando Meirelles: BLINDNESS

After working on the adaptation of John le Carré's The Constant Gardener, Fernando Meirelles who also directed City of God has a new adaptation in the form of Nobel-laureate José Saramago's Blindness. The book tells the story of a mass epidemic which causes blindness and its effect on the unnamed city for which it is centred. Saramago wrote a sequel to the story in 2004 titled Seeing which is set in the same country and has been translated to English. It revolves around a majority of the populace casting blank ballots and the government's efforts to come to terms with and eradicate the movement.

Here is the teaser trailer for Meirelles adaptation for Blindness:



Blindness will be opening the 2008 Cannes Festival on the 14 May.

Links:
Blindess (movie website-Miramax)
José Saramago Nobel lecture (NobelPrize.org)
The Unexpected Fantasist - Saramago (New York Times)
José Saramago Wiki
Fernando Meirelles Wiki

Tuesday 29 April 2008

SiouxWIRE Snippets 7


Museums should beware of being used as marketing tools
Adrian Ellis, The Art Newspaper

Making a bloody mess of the art world
Jessica Lack, Guardian Unlimited

The end of an artist-gallery relationship, from both sides
Edward Winkleman, edward_winkleman

Pocket Pads
Lenora Chu, MetropolisMag.com
"­As concerns about the environment grow, a few architects are betting that buyers will want radically smaller homes."

The Countertraffickers

William Finnegan, The New Yorker
"Stella Rotaru is a repatriation specialist. Her main task is bringing lost Moldovans home. Nearly all her clients are victims of human trafficking, most of them women sold into prostitution abroad…"

Mind Your Business: You Will Lose All the Rights to Your Own Art
Mark Simon, Animation World Network
Found via Mrs. Deane, the new orphan art legislation seems to be putting the onus of copyright on the artist's shoulders; and beware Corbis and Getty...

W.H. Auden: The Art of Poetry No. 17
Michael Newman, The Paris Review
Brilliant interview with W.H. Auden.


Do Schools Today Kill Creativity? -
Sir Ken Robinson, TED

CRUSH: R.E.M. "Hollowman" + The Gum Thief


From Toronto-based Crush, this video for the R.E.M. song "Hollow Man" is a refreshingly low-fi typographic and pictorial collage. See below in low quality Flash video or alternatively in Quicktime HERE.



Crush also created nine similarly sublime shorts for Random House Canada based around Douglas Coupland's The Gum Thief. See and download them HERE or alternatively view the selection below.


Glove Pond - Part 1


Roger - Part 1


Bethany - Part 1

Links:
Hollow Man Quicktime
R.E.M. Hollow Man Project
The Gum Thief
Crush
Douglas Coupland
Computerlove

Monday 28 April 2008

THE GRANGE PRIZE


The Art Gallery of Ontario has announced that Sarah Anne Johnson is the inaugural winner of the Grange Prize for Contemporary Photography. A jury comprised of representatives from the Art Gallery of Ontario and underwriters Aeroplan selected the five finalists representing Canadian and international artists whose work you can see represented here.

The final vote was selected solely by the public via The Grange Prize website which troubles me somewhat. Though one can certainly get a flavour for an image on-line, it isn't the same as viewing the print itself. Add to that the various settings and attributes of screens used to view the selection and it muddies the waters even more. There is certainly a lot of work in the selection that screams for a larger format than is on offer, but I think that's a discussion left for later.

It's an interesting group of artists and each have an eclectic mix of work in their portfolios. Visit The Grange Prize site for more of their work or go to the end of this post for additional links.





George Steinmetz wasn't one of the finalists though his aerial image of clear-cut forest masked from the road was brought to mind by Sarah Anne Johnson's "The Buffer Zone".


Links:
The Grange Prize
Art Gallery of Ontario
Sarah Anne Johnson (Julie Saul Gallery)
Liu Zheng
Miao Xiaochun Wiki
Huang Yan Wiki
Raymonde April

THIERRY DE MEY's "Ma Mère l'Oye"

Composer and filmmaker Thierry De Mey's short film set to Maurice Ravel's "Ma Mère l'Oye"(Mother Goose) was created in 2004 by commission from ARTE. The ballet written in 1908 is inspired by the fairy tales of Charles Perrault. This 28-minute film is a fascinating collage filmed in the woods outside Brussels.


Part 1 - Ma Mère l'Oye


Part 2 - Ma Mère l'Oye


Part 3 - Ma Mère l'Oye


Links:
Ma Mère l'Oye (PACT Zollverein)
Thierry de Mey profile(Charleroi Danses)
"Ma Mère l'Oye" (ARTE - French/German)
ARTE (French/German)
"Ma Mère l'Oye" (Festival of Films on Art)
Charles Perrault Wiki
"Ma Mère l'Oye" Wiki
Maurice Ravel Wiki

GRANT BARNHART - Spread Eagle


Another update on another of the interviewed, Grant Barnhart will be attending the opening of his first solo exhibition overseas at Leslie's Art Gallery in Luxembourg. Spread Eagle will run from 2 to 31 May 2008.

Links:
Grant Barnhart
Grant Barnhart interview (SiouxWIRE)
Leslie's Art Gallery

Friday 25 April 2008

Featurette: EIJA-LIISA AHTILA


With her experimental video work, photographer and sculptures, Eija-Liisa Ahtila's explores themes such as death, relationships, and mental breakdown through what she describes as "human dramas". Her work experimenting with narrative in video through multiple screens virtually removing the two-dimensional cause and effect is fascinating. Grounded in extensive research, her application of moments to her multi-platform video tableau is in essence more painterly than cinematographic.

Follow the links below for more information.


Links:
Eija-Liisa Ahtila (BBC Wales)
Eija-Liisa Ahtila (BFI)
Eija-Liisa Ahtila interview (Kopenhagen)
The Never-ending Story (Guardian)
Eija-Liisa Ahtila Wiki
Eija-Liisa Ahtila (ArtForum)
Eija-Liisa Ahtila (New York Times)
Eija-Liisa Ahtila's Affective Images in The House (Mediascape)
Eija-Liisa Ahtila (Kiasma Magazine)
Eija-Liisa Ahtila (Paolo Curti)

ILC - The Tent Lady's Hospitality

I receive so many interesting updates from the alumni of the interviewing series. The Icelandic Love Corporation have new work at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.

Links:
Bozar
Icelandic Love Corporation
Icelandic Love Corportion interview (SiouxWIRE)

I SERVED THE KING OF ENGLAND

With Jirí Menzel's film adaptation of Bohumil Hrabil's witty Czech masterpiece, I Served the King of England soon to be released outside the Czech Republic, I thought it timely to recommend this social and political satire which Milan Kundera described as "one of the most authentic incarnations of magical Prague, an incredible union of earthy humour and baroque imagination"

The film itself is typical of literary adaptations losing a good deal in the process but still remains worthy of its 2 hour run time with elements reminiscent of Roy Andersson and Jacques Tati.
Jirí Menzel's previous adaptation of Hrabel, Closely Watched Trains won the 1967 Academy Award for best foreign film.


Here is the original Czech trailer followed by the American trailer. The Czech version is superior even with the language barrier though the subtitles in the over-the-top American trailer does give more background for those unfamiliar with Hrabil's book.





Links:
I Served the King of England (Sony Picture Classics)
Jirí Menzel interview
Jirí Menzel Wiki
I Served the King of England (Dear Cinema)

Peculiar Anthropomorphics

I found this work from Chinese artist, Qiu Jie Bei at the Arario Gallery Beijing. Seeing another anthropomorphic feline complete with wings(though sans chapeau) was too much to ignore. I'm quite fond of anthropomorphic characters.


Links:
Arario Gallery Beijing
Qiu Jie Bei (Artnet)

Thursday 24 April 2008

Featurette: LA LA LA HUMAN STEPS


Founded by Édouard Lock in 1980, La La La Human Steps is a Quebec-based contemporary dance group known for their intense expression, speed and bold productions. I find it difficult to put into words the sublime effect of their work but the clips below do give a good indication of their voice.

I will be coming back to La La La Human Steps in more detail later. In the meantime, enjoy these samples.

Wednesday 23 April 2008

Featurette: MARIA ELVIRA ESCALLON


Mark Hooper at Guardian Unlimited has posted a heads up to this interesting artist. This really underscores my need for a Spanish translator and/or collaborator. Unfortunately, Mr. Hooper is similarly flummoxed by Spanish. Ironically, Maria was born in London.



Her bio from the 2005 Berlin Photography Festival states:
born in London in 1954, Maria Elvira Escallón lives and works in Bogotá, Colombia. She initially studied psychology and later changed to fine art, taking workshops and courses at Colombian art academies. Of high formal heterogeneity, where each work has its own precise and unique path, Escallón’s work focuses on the processes of memory and destruction, nature and culture. Since 1980 her work has been included in many institutional art events in Colombia, including several solo exhibitions. Her work has received recognitions such as The National scholarship to Individual Creation granted by the Ministry of Culture in 1997 and the Luis Caballero Award in 2003. Since 2000, Escallon has exhibited her work and developed projects internationally.
She is currently exhibiting at The Photographer's Gallery in London as part of Once more with feeling which features recent work of Columbian photographers.




Links:
Maria Elvira Escallón
Guardian Unlimited - Mark Hooper
The Photographers Gallery

Tuesday 22 April 2008

ELIZABETH FRASER

Having been an integral part of The Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil, Scottish singer/songwriter Elizabeth Fraser has worked with a variety of artists including Jeff Buckley, Orbital, Peter Gabriel, Massive Attack and Yann Tiersen.

Her unique vocals seem natural and fleeting while keeping a strength through their sincere and relaxed delivery. Enjoy.


This Mortal Coil - Song to the Siren


Cocteau Twins - Iceblink Luck


Cocteau Twins - Pandora

Friday 18 April 2008

Interview: THEO JANSEN

I first discovered Theo Jansen's work just over a year ago and immediately started correspondence with him. Today, we sat down for what is a key interview in the roster bringing together the worlds of science and art in the most natural and unexpected ways.

Theo Jansen studied physics at the University of Delft, Holland before becoming a painter. After his seven year career in painting, he started work on the UFO project which entailed the creation of an actual flying saucer that flew over Delft in 1980 causing pandemonium in the town and attracting considerable attention to his work.


For more than 10 years now, he has been working on the genesis of new nature in his Strandbeest creations which he envisions becoming completely autonomous, intelligent, wind-powered life forms. As an introduction to this work, here is his presentation on this fascinating project for TED:


Theo Jansen: The art of creating creatures



What prompted you to quit your studies of Physics at the University of Delft and becomes a painter?
I was young of course. The hippy period was there. I was distracted from my study by all these new dreams of people and a lot of friends of mine were artists and so I decided to become one as well and started becoming a painter.


And have you continued painting?
No, it stopped as soon as I started the UFO project at the beginning of the eighties and then the UFO project had such a success also media wise and I had been famous for about three months in my country for that and so I chased it more or less on bigger projects. After that, I couldn't paint anymore, sit in my studio and just paint. It wasn't possible anymore.

Following on from your painting, you seem to have had a desire to “work outside the box” and pursue new forms of expression through the painting machine and light sculptures. How did these projects develop?
After the UFO project, I had to do something more technical things and my interest for physics which has never been away during painting, it was really a rebirth in the technical interest after the UFO so I wanted to make something technical.


The painting machine was something interesting because in those days there were no printers yet so it was quite unusual to paint with a painting machine like that especially as the perspective of the images that came out of the painting machine because it made real size photos in front of the wall so the distance didn't matter at all. If a chair was standing a meter or 100 meters it would be the same size. That was the special thing about the painting machine because you could also make the opposite perspective objects with it so I also made photographs of chairs and tables which were in opposite. Things which were closer were smaller and things which were bigger were further away from the wall so it's just the opposite of normal perspective.

What did you learn from them?
My mind was really going on thinking. It made me change my living just for a lot of dreaming about abstract 3D forms in my head and the possibilities of machines. It really did change my thinking and my attitude. I was asked to write a column for a university magazine that really was sort of, this is a Dutch expression, “a stick behind the door”. That means that someone is standing there beating you up when you don't do your homework.


And did this work have any influence on your Strandbeests?
It surely had as this column really forced me to think about anything in the world and because every time I tried to find new, strange perspectives on reality and in effect, the strandbeests they started off as a column in the newspaper and that is about 18 years ago now and in the first period after that nothing happened. I had written the column and then half a year later, I got the idea of going to the shop and buying some of these tubes. I started playing with it and I did that for an afternoon and in the period of the afternoon, I decided to spend one year on these tubes, on these conduits because I saw so many possibilities in there. It turned out to be more than I could ever think of all those years ago.


Thursday 17 April 2008

The Geography of Misery


I have always been allergic to borders; those imaginary lines that separate and compartmentalise people into manageable groups. It's my hope that as technology and knowledge advances that citizenship will be so mobile as to eventually render it moot as it is on portions of the internet where groups of people gather irrespective of geographic location but I stray.

In addition to an unease with borders, I also wondered why a tragedy in my country is or rather seems to be of greater significance to those outside. Is it because it is that much more likely to happen to me and thus an underlying selfishness is at play? What if a starving family from the third world were camped in Trafalgar Square? The thing is that the tragedy is not so much in their location but the circumstances.

Now Guilermo Vargas Habacuc, an artist in Costa Rica tied a starving stray dog in a gallery space where the creature named Nativity died. Habacuc says:
Hello everyone. My name is Guillermo Vargas Habacuc. I am 50 years old and an artist. Recently, I have been criticized for my work titled "Eres lo que lees", which features a dog named Nativity. The purpose of the work was not to cause any type of infliction on the poor, innocent creature, but rather to illustrate a point. In my home city of San Jose, Costa Rica, tens of thousands of stray dogs starve and die of illness each year in the streets and no one pays them a second thought. Now, if you publicly display one of these starving creatures, such as the case with Nativity, it creates a backlash that brings out a big of hypocrisy in all of us. Nativity was a very sick creature and would have died in the streets anyway.
Unsurprisingly, there has been a huge backlash to this and petitions have even arisen in protest. According to the gallery, the starving dog was a fiction and that Nativity was regularly fed by Habacuc and eventually escaped. Some have pointed to Habacuc's statement above remarking on the last line that states he "would have died in the streets anyway". Though this brings into question the truth, it would not be the first time an artist displayed a fiction as truth to preserve impact.

I have always been an advocate of animal rights and I sincerely hope that Habacuc's project was a fiction or that I'm missing something in the flurry of stories circulating. Why didn't a visitor to the gallery simply pick the dog up and take it home? I think even Habacuc would have considered that a brilliant gesture. That said, I can't help but wonder about the furore and effort put into campaigns against Habacuc which could be better targeted.

Indeed, Habacuc seems such an obvious target that it makes me feel uneasy.

And again, the tragedy lies in the plight of the animal and not it's location, be it on the street or in a gallery, indoors or outdoors, in Nicaragua or the USA. I'm not saying that Habacuc is a genius but this episode has made me think well beyond the plight of dogs in Costa Rica. It makes me question how I(we?) perceive the misfortune of others and how taking misery out of context can change its impact.

Certainly having the dog tethered within scent range of food is a horrifying prospect. For pity's sake, give him the food! We have the means! That sentiment is true of so many things but the fact remains that in numerous scenarios, people fail to stand up to the challenge. In this case, the problem is easy to grasp, it's emotive and more importantly, the solution is simple.

Perhaps once the dog is in the gallery, we have someone to blame whereas on the street there is no scapegoat, just myopia. In that finite space, the dog is detached from its kin in the street and becomes a cause of its own. Being a single dog, it's a manageable problem whereas the problem on the streets is more complicated and somehow more abstract.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Oddly, when I was attending the School of Visual Arts in New York, I found a Black Labrador puppy with a distended stomach that was barely able to walk in Brooklyn. It would walk two steps, rest, two more steps, collapse, two more steps... It was on the other side of the street but people barely noticed. Some bit their lip but walked on, others seemed annoyed the thing was in its path, one looked around for I'm guessing the owner before continuing. I was hoping someone else would help him but after 20 minutes and dozens of pedestrians, nothing. It wasn't that all the passing people didn't care as I'm sure many like me were looking at the poor creature and thinking someone will surely help.

The dog had mange and despite being young was mobbed with flies. Eventually, I picked it up and brought it home with me on the L train back to Manhattan. It was not a pleasant journey which was down more to the other passengers than the fleas and flies. Anyhow, the point is that suffering is seen differently when there is clearly another responsible and immediately identifiable.

As for the dog, I spent the last of my money paying its discounted vet bills and Whiskey as I called him was the picture of health within a month. I then found him a new home meeting a friend of a friend in front of Katz's deli who renamed him Duncan and moved to the countryside.

EDIT: Joy over at Edward Winkleman's blog helpfully posted THIS LINK shedding some light over at Artnet news. Brilliant.

Links:
Edward Winkleman - The Limits

Forgotten: JULIE TAYMOR's "Titus"

Released in 1999, Julie Taymor's visually and viscerally striking adaptation of William Shakespeare's tragedy Titus Andronicus is an overlooked work which came in for ample criticism during its release balanced in equal part with praise for its acting and visuals.

Adhering closely to the original material, the film follows a cycle of vengeance between the families of the Roman General Titus Andronicus(Anthony Hopkins) and the Queen of the Goths Tamora (Jessica Lange) though the ending does veer from the bleak original in favour of a more optimistic future.

This was Taymor's cinematic debut after work on Broadway which garnered her considerable acclaim for her adapatation of The Lion King. Her subsequent films include the Frida Kahlo biopic Frida and Across the Universe though for me, I can't help but yearn for her to apply the same daring and skill of Titus to something new.

Being Shakespeare's bloodiest play, the film itself is a bruising experience with violence suitably used at key moments in the story accenting another turn of the gears of vengeance. With a fascinating melange of postmodern imagery, fine acting and a storyline all too relevant to the modern world, it isn't perfect but certainly worthy of attention.



Links:
Now is a time to storm - Elsie Walker (Literature Film Quarterly)
Titus review (BFI)
Titus Wiki
Julie Taymor Wiki

Monday 14 April 2008

Interview: STACY WAKEFIELD FORTE


This is the first part of dual interviews between the twin founders of Evil Twin Publications.

Stacy Wakefield Forte studied book design at the Rhode Island School of Design and graduated from the Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam in 1994. As well as working with her sister on Evil Twin Publications, Stacy was Design Director at Artforum and Index magazines in New York.

Now living the Catskills of upstate New York, Stacy continues to design books, is a member of Booklyn, and works as a volunteer at hydro-powered WJFF Radio.

What effect did travelling outside the US at a young age have on you? And what were the key things you learned during this period? Charmed by squatting? Was it difficult to return to the home country?
Travelling internationally at any age is fascinating. You discover things you take for granted that other cultures look at completely differently. I loved squatting for the same reason, it expanded my notions of how basic things like housing and group living could and should work. In the netherlands there is a community around squatting that functions extremely well. People in that scene are very community focussed, which is surprising to be around coming from the US where the culture is very individualistic. American underground art and music culture is exciting exactly because of our intense individualism. But the dutch are much better than us at anything community-centered, like squatting and collectively run businesses and projects. In my experience.


You’re currently collaborating with Fritz Haeg, researching earth sheltered homes for a new book. Where did you discover Fritz’s work and how did the collaboration begin? And what drew you to the subject of earth sheltered homes?
I met Fritz in LA through mutual friends and we spontaneously discovered a shared fascination with earth sheltered houses. We both had ideas percolating around them that made more sparks when combined. Earth sheltered houses are so romantic and wonderful. Covering a house with a sod roof so that it blends with the landscape and the home is protected from the elements makes so much sense.

For some reason this style hasn't captured the sustainable-building imagination as much as it should, so I think this project is really important for bringing rooted houses more into the public conciousness. There are issues around building them, it is a little more complicated and expensive to build them than above ground houses, and the right site is very important. but with more attention and discussion brought to them, these things can be addressed and improved on. So our goal is to investigate earth sheltered building, its past and present and potential, and see what we find.

What are the prominent memories and key things you learned while working as design director for Artforum and Index Magazine?
Artforum is an extremely well-run independent magazine with a phenomenal staff. I was really lucky to get to work there. The design of the magazine is necessarily straightforward and subservient to the text and art images, so as much as i loved the working environment and being involved in such a venerable institution as Artforum is, I don't think the designer has a very integral role there. At Index I had the chance to have much more impact. It could be very challenging to work there because it was a small and chaotic operation, but that added to everyone's sense of urgency and personal accountability. The role of design in the magazine was huge, I worked in very close creative collaboration with the publisher, Peter Halley, and we tried out all kinds of ideas that editors would have killed at other magazines.

Usually as a designer, you are working to please a panel of editors, who are by nature word people and not always visually adventurous. I have no problem with that, I think that kind of collaboration between a designer and editor can lead to the most accessible and relevant design. But index was a departure from that because the only person with final say over my work was Peter Halley who is a visual artist, as well as a writer. He was always pushing me to be wilder.


Sunday 13 April 2008

Introducing AMANITA DESIGN

Established in 2003 by Jakub Dvorsky and expanded in 2005 with Vaclav Blin, Amanita Design are creators of gentle and organic interactive works. With a team of seven collaborators, their work is full of heart and stridently individual.

For a small studio, they have garnered considerable attention holding exhibitions of their work and receiving numerous awards. Their latest work for the BBC Questionaut, is a masterful piece that shows how far they've come in recent years. Later this year, Amanita will be releasing their first full-scale game, Machinarium.


Here are some samples of their work(click to play):

In March 2005, Jakub and Vaclav were gracious enough to take part in a brief interview.


Would you tell us a little about who you are and what you do?
Amanita Design is me - Jakub Dvorský and Václav Blín, both from the Czech Republic (me from Brno, Václav from Prague). We are focused on creating on-line Flash games, animations and websites.

Where do you get your ideas from and how do you approach the creative process?
My inspiration comes mainly from nature, but also from music, literature etc. The creative process is simple: at first we are thinking about what to do for some time and then follow a lot of work:)

What software do you use?
Photoshop for creating backgrounds and other bitmaps and Flash for animations, interactivity etc.

Where did you learn the skills you use today?
We both studied Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague in the department of Graphics Design and Visual Communication (prof. Jiří Barta).

How would you describe the design scene in the Czech Republic at the moment?
I thing here is many talented designers, but only few of them are working for the web.


Can you tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on now?
We are working on a sequel to Samorost now, it should be longer and with original music from Floex (Tomáš Dvořák, www.floex.cz).

Why is there a link of your to "In Pursuit of Tea" (Chai)?
They promised to send me some tea which I like:)

Outside the digital world, do have skills in any other forms of art?
I Like painting, writing, video, etc. I'm drawing time to time.


How long did it take you to create the games and animations on your site?
As an example, The Quest For The Rest took me 2 months of hard work.

Who are your favourite Czech animators?
Břetislav Pojar, Jan Švankmajer, Karel Zeman and Vlasta Pospíšilová.

Who are your favourite artists in other fields?
Hieronimus Bosch, Francisco de Goya, Max Ernst, Douglas Adams, Stanislaw Lem, Amon Tobin, Squarepusher, Björk, Terry Gilliam, Jurij Norštejn, Woody Allen and many others:)

What advice would you give to a freelance artist in your field?
Well I'm not sure, perhaps don't be afraid of experimenting.

Where would you like to see Amanita Design in 10 years?
It's pretty far:) I'd like to keep Amanita Design alive and also still small company (2-10 people) and I hope to produce high quality projects no matter what it'll be.

Thank you.


Links:
Amanita Design
Machinarium
Interview (Indie Games)
Interview (Adventure Gamers)

Saturday 12 April 2008

Interview: RICEBOY SLEEPS


Riceboy Sleeps is an art collaboration between Jónsi Birgisson and Alex Somers comprised of still images, music, video, and storytelling. Releasing a picture book in Iceland in 2006(1000 hand numbered editions), they held their first exhibition at Gallery Turpentine in Reykjavik.

In 2007, a second unnumbered edition of the book was released as well as two singles, All the big trees and Daniel in the Sea. Further exhibitions outside Iceland followed in the US and Australia. They currently have an exhibition at the Agency Gallery in London(10 April-17 May, 2008).

Jónsi Birgisson is also a member and lead singer for Sigur Rós and Alex Somers who has worked on artwork for Sigur Rós is a member of the band Parachutes. As Jónsi and Alex were setting up their exhibition in London as the interview was conducted, each was interviewed separately though the answers are presented here in a compiled format.


Sioux:
How did the Moss Stories and Riceboy Sleeps project develop and what were your motivations?
Alex: The project began four years ago and there was never any motivation, we didn't realise that we were starting a real project. It was just the two of us making music and making artwork for fun really.
Jonsi: It just started with me and Alex and we wanted to do something together. Alex is just in the same headspace.

Sioux: Did that start from the videos you've done?
Alex: Actually, we started making music a long time ago and we made lots of songs and we were recording and stuff and then at some point since we both did videos on our own, we decided it would be fun to make videos for some of our songs and that's how it began and then Jonsi and I moved in together so we began drawing and painting a lot together.


Sioux: What would you say are the key differences in your musical work with Riceboy Sleeps as opposed to your creations with Sigur Ros and Parachutes?
Alex: It's quite similar. We use the same instruments, same microphones. I think the process is quite similar except Parachutes is Scott and I, and Riceboy is Jonsi and I. I think working with Jonsi, everything is much more brave and spontaneous and I think with Parachutes we're not as brave as Jonsi, he's so brave in trying and going for things. And sometimes I forget that if I'm not working with him . They're quite similar.
Jonsi: Yeah, just different. Me and Alex work differently. Riceboy is more like playing with sounds.


Sigur Rós - Glósóli




Sioux: And would you say the Riceboy Sleeps project will have an impact on your future work in Sigur Ros and Parachutes? If so why and in what way?
Alex: I don't know. We have plenty of time to do both and we've had offers to do Riceboy and Parachutes projects together. I don't know if that will happen or not. And I don't think either will effect the other in a negative way, only a positive way, more creation and more making and having fun.
Jonsi: I don't know. It could do.


Sioux: Does the aged and worn aesthetic signify anything in particular to you and your work? And what was the motivation in using old, rustic frames in your gallery work?
Alex: It's more of a feeling and atmosphere we're trying to create than a specific message. We're never really aware of trying to tell people something, we're more interested in having people feel something so it's just a really good feeling and something we've both been really attracted to before we even met eachother. It's comfortable, it feels like things have soul. Before we met, we were both collecting old photographs and old books and didn't really know why, we just both really like them. Then when we started making artwork, it just got incorporated into our work.
Jonsi: We do the pictures first and we found these frames just lying and it would kind of suit so well with the other stuff we were doing.

"...when I met Jonsi, I was really, really poor and I was just living off of rice mostly..."
Sioux: Who is Rice Boy?
Alex: When it started out, it was the name of one of our songs called Riceboy Sleeps. It was just because when I met Jonsi, I was really, really poor and I was just living off of rice mostly and I was sleeping too much so Jonsi was writing a song while I was asleep one day and he named it Riceboy Sleeps. For some reason ever since then we just called whatever we were working on at the time, Riceboy Sleeps. We never decided for that to be officially be our name, it just happened.


Riceboy Sleeps - Daniel in the sea


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