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FAULT: You are currently based in Berlin, how inspired are you by your surroundings?
Berlin has a really docile and also dark mystique about it, but I guess that coincides with the seasons. There is a lot of grit and charm to be found in countless corners of the city and a lot of things work here that would never work anywhere else. For instance, space and time are unique to the city and they both operate differently compared to other cities I’ve been to. There is a generous amount of both both time and space in Berlin. People drift in and out here, and the cities character is reflective of the transient nature of it’s cohabitants, insofar as everything boasts an unfinished theme here. You can really feel impermanent yet permanently reside here, but there is a lot of serendipity to be uncovered within the city since nothing seems permanent or clearly defined. Winter, is like an abyss of darkness here and if it were not for the city’s creative atmosphere, I would certainly never live here.
The Ground Beneath Collapses
FAULT:You attended The Maryland Institute College of Art? How was that?
Yes, I briefly attended The Maryland Institute College of Art prior to my Alma Mater, The Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow Poland. MICA was undoubtedly a formidable school with tones of talent, but at the time I was seeking other things that was no where be found there. MICA had just about anything an art student could possibly want, but somehow it did not suffice on a personal level. Also, despite scholarships, I wanted to avoid accumulating a mountain of debt in student loans, the last thing I needed was to graduate and commence a career as an artist in debt. The college tuition at MICA was by no means a reasonable sum, so I thought I could obtain a more challenging experience and education in a place I had no clue about. The Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow surely did not have the state – of – the – art facilities MICA had, but it also had a long history of poster art, an affiliation to “The Theater of the Absurd “, a foreign curriculum, and I knew next to nothing about Poland or what to expect. The first months were pretty terrifying and far from comfortable, I got robbed, beat up, experienced blatant forms of racism, knew no one or anything, but all in all, I learned more from the necessity of having to figure things out than if I had stayed at MICA where I had anything an art student could possibly want.
FAULT:What are you currently working on?
At present, I’m hard at work on my next exhibition for 2011 which is entitled “Paradise Lost’, which I’m really super excited about. The actual framework for the show is based on the John Milton Poem “Paradise Lost” which is centered around the story of Adam in Eve, their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and the fall of mankind. There won’t be anything that directly coincides with the story itself, but the story informs the concept of the exhibition set in modern day times. The show will include sound and video from Bastian Hopfgarten who works primarily in film, and large scale collages and prints – very different from my previous work. Expect to eat apples at the opening! Aside from that I will be working with Todd Selby on a project here in Berlin soon, so that should be cool. And for some time I have been wanting to apply my artistic practice to something more practical such as fashion to see where it could go, so we will see if there will be the chance to collaborate with some fashion designers in the near future.
Adam
FAULT:Are there any artists you appreciate and are influenced by?
Hmm…..an abridged list of contemporary artists – Christian Holstad, Louis Gispert, Bernhard Willhelm, Zbigniew Rogalski, Charlotte McGowan-Griffin, Isa Genzken, and Nathalie Djurberg. I also worked for Kirstine Roepstorff and I really love her work as well, but I’m definitely forgetting a lot here.
FAULT:Do you collages reflect your personality?
I suppose everything someone does accords with their personality.
FAULT:Where do you draw your inspirations from?
Just about anything and everything. My work is a way for me to deal with the reality in front of me, so the inspiration is always derived from whatever experiences I’ve had or what is going on in my head. The people in my life also have a huge impact on what I do in my artistic practice, even if they are not necessarily “creative” they are special to me, so I am always flabbergasted by what they do and this inevitably effects my work. It may sound naive, but there is also the desire to change the world since there are a lot of things that are far from ideal that should change. The work is like a course of action against the things that could be different and attempts to subvert convention and “normative” patterns. But I guess that is the impetus and not so much the inspiration?
EVE
FAULT:Where do you source your images from?
Well, I collect a lot of papers, books, posters, magazines, just about anything – there are no exceptions. The studio has a lot of material that I never use, but I always end up using something if the content is appropriate to the concept. I never spend a lot money on the materials, and I like the materials to have some history, so I tend to get the materials at flea markets, discount item stores, inherit from friends, or find in the garbage. In that way, the materials all have a different feeling or character to one another. But I try to avoid the Internet as much as possible, though it’s tempting and convenient, there’s no treasure hunt involved just click and print.
FAULT: We read you are tackling you life long fear of the dentist. How is that going?
FAULT: After one too many less than mediocre experiences, I have a Pavlovian response to cringe in the fetal position when I hear the word dentist.
FAULT: What is your FAULT?
All or nothing.