INTERVIEW WITH ILTH

Q and A via e-mail, March 2009

S+U: I counted approximately 148 different tags on your Flickr profile. I suppose they're all representative of your work in some way, but if I asked you to pick just 10, which ones would you select?

ILTH:
Dystopia
Collage
Celestial
Chance
Void
Sacred
Macabre
Imagination
Esoteric
Space

...looking over this list, I must add: dreams, one of the most important for sure. Also: circle and buildings. Let me add symbolism, as well. It's not easy narrowing down the list!

S+U: There are several art movements on the list, as well. I.E. Art Brut, Cubism, Dada, Futurism etc. Do you remember when you first encountered some of those works and how you initially responded to them and which kind of "art" were you into, before you discovered those?

ILTH: Dada and Surrealism: read about it in an article in Search and Destroy zine... I might have had an intro before that, but I don't remember.
I always remember liking art before, but Dada and Surrealism and then the other 20th Century isms turned me on as well ... the manifestos... I dig that - and a cheaper means of making art and the different ways with objects and collage.

S+U: Do you listen to music when you work? Are there any particular sounds you prefer while working…

ILTH: Music is definitely apart of it. Shit, I listen to whatever I like. I don't have anything set aside for making collages. Throbbing Gristle is always a favorite, though.

S+U: Besides "the old masters" and various images that catch your eye or imagination, which you then use in the collages, what other types of visual stimuli do you seek out?
Are there any living visual artists whom you think have nailed "it" and do you have any particular spots where you live or have traveled to, that appeal to the dystopian/sacred/macabre/void aesthetic?

ILTH: Other visual stimuli would be round objects and landscapes. Besides the content, the color and clarity of the pictures is also important.

"Nailed it"? David Lynch, R. Crumb, Roy Anderson's movie: Songs from the Second Floor.

Places I've traveled... Well, Chicago has a lot to do with that dystopia and void. All the people hustling to and from and as a friend put it the other day "this city is grey" in reference to the winter and all the salt covering the ground. Detroit and Cleveland get an honorable mention, too!

S+U: Some of the collages are very dense and detailed and some are almost deserted image wise. Do they play off of each other or are you moving towards a certain direction when it comes to balancing composition and image?

ILTH: The two different approaches deal with 1) filling all space and 2) using the open/unused space.
...hopefully that answers your question.

S+U: It does. Last question - how big a part does chance play when you work? Are you prepared to ditch the original idea if something suddenly turns up, or do you stay true to the initial thought you had regarding the piece, during the whole process?

ILTH: I find an image/s I like and cut it out. Chance plays a role with the availability of sources and what I happen to find.
I have an idea of what I am going for, but as I am making the picture I tend to reshape and mold and take away. I try to limit: keeping open spaces, also - more often than not – I work on the same 12"x12" format.

links:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilth
http://www.myspace.com/dailyvoid
http://www.myspace.com/tarantismosummit