JONAS FREDERIKSEN

Tweak Tymes (click picture for best view)





Last Styles (click picture for best view)





Original Fever (click picture for best view)





Easy Miracle (click picture for best view)





Ozzy (click picture for best view)





Vangeliean Flower Deco (click picture for best view)





Portal Tropicales - front (click picture for best view)





Portal Tropicales - excerpt (click picture for best view)





Portal Tropicales - excerpt (click picture for best view)





Portal Tropicales - excerpt (click picture for best view)





Portal Tropicales - excerpt (click picture for best view)





Portal Tropicales - excerpt (click picture for best view)





Portal Tropicales - excerpt (click picture for best view)



_______________________________________________
Portal Tropicales features work by:
Bart De Paepe, Jonas Frederiksen, Martin Coffee Anarchy,
Magnus Aabro, Anine Aabro, Lottery James, Matt Mondanile,
Steven Warwick, Loke J. Rahbek, Nønne Hoffmeyer,
Christian Simon, Lieven Martens, Jani Hrvñ, Puma Cotopex
Copyright Jonas Frederiksen 2009

INTERVIEW WITH JONAS FREDERIKSEN

B and F via e-mail, April 2009

S+U: You're taking a break from Beyond Repair and focusing on your own music – a.k.a. Dreamers Cloth.
Can you tell me a little about this decision? Did you get bored with the kind of music you were releasing on Beyond Repair or did you just need some change?

Jonas: Well, I've been doing Beyond Repair with my friend Simon since the summer of ‘05 and it was a lot of fun.
I did not get bored with the kind of music released through Beyond Repair, but to be honest I got bored with putting out music by other people. So, I've put Beyond Repair to sleep for some time to focus on my own music.

S+U: Your other current projects, besides Dreamers Cloth, "Relax with Nature" and "Mind Beach" have sort of a New Age ring to them - what do these concepts mean to you and what kind of atmosphere are you trying to evoke?

Jonas: I think Mind Beach is whenever you rest your thoughts on something – and that could be anything really... Mind Beach is a picture of this static “thought gazing". But, also when you’re having many concurrent thoughts and the next minute everything seems solved and you rest your mind on one specific thing. This way, “Mind Beach” works as a landing strip for your thoughts.
That is a picture I find really beautiful.
Relax with Nature is my idea of chilling out and going with the flow.
I found out later that it’s actually an already existing New Age label. It was not my intention to copy this, however.

I think that what I’m trying to evoke is an atmosphere of a place where civilization and culture is non-existing.
Maybe I should call it cultural-civilization, since our concept of civilization is defined and interpreted via our culture.
What I’m talking about is a place – or a state of mind, which becomes real the very second cultural-civilization is cancelled, and all that is left is nature – BUT – a new nature (New Natural Reality) where, amongst other things, communication between individuals isn’t corrupted by words.
I know this sounds really romantic and it’s also paradoxical to try to describe a place free from culture by means of words!
Ironically, the way things work right now, it’s impossible to reach this place without the aid of cultural-civilization and a vague attempt in trying to describe this place can only be done by one person to another by means of culture.

This is a problem, because you can ask me “why this” and “why that” etc. and the answers I give you will never be correct, since most of it is just a feeling which can never be properly described by means of culture.
This is also why I’m not into forcing people to listen to my music or look at my art.

S+U: Why not?

Jonas: First of all, I’m not able to say anything really useful about it, nor do I want to defend it.
People like it – or they don’t. I do not want to spend my time convincing anyone about anything.
Those meant to be are turned on by “Relax with Nature” and “Mind Beach” just by reading the words – no reflection needed. I simply can’t speak for those who aren’t. It’s not in my interest.
So, maybe what I really want to say is just to go with the flow and rest only your thoughts on what you actually find useful.

S+U: When I look at the collages you sent me, I get slightly puzzled. Technically there's nothing fancy about them (which is perfectly OK), but the images seem like they were chosen very carefully to convey a specific mood.
"Tweak Tymes" seems a bit sad, where "Last Styles" and “Original Fever" look like you've been practicing using some kind of 80s interior decorator computer software.
Do you mind explaining a little bit about each of the six?
Just a couple of words...

Jonas: There is nothing fancy about them, that's true. All of them were done pretty quickly, but the idea is still strong.
I think it is good when things are a bit “hand to mouth” - “I like this picture and I like that one, too - I will put them together”... One picture represents one mind frequency and the other picture represents another mind frequency. Put together the collage becomes a piece of a puzzle representing a larger grid of frequencies travelling with hyper speed back and forth through the mind, so you just gotta nail them when they’re there.

“Tweak Tymes” is all about 90s raves, which is a scene I find really inspiring. One massive organic mass of love and pure energy wanting and knowing that there is more to life than the apparent.
The rave mass tweak time by using their collective consciousness and step out of the apparent cultural grid. Like an orbiting planet being hit by a meteor and forced to work its way into the old orbit again - but richer and more enlightened.
And maybe it’s a bit sad too, since I never experienced a rave back then and the fact that it will never happen in the same spirit. Still, it’s a nice place to rest one’s thoughts.

“Last styles” is when Man is at the threshold of entering a new age - the last styles of the last age.

“Original Fever” is the fever you get when you find out how much civilization and culture is shackling your thoughts.
And yes, I am interested in interior décor as you can also see in “Easy Miracle”.

Ozzy is about experiencing natural ecstasy.

“Vangeliean Flower Deco” is the hand from the cover of Vangelis’ “Heaven and Hell” on top of a really classic looking flower bouquet. I like classic art and Vangelis.

S+U: If you don't mind, I'd like to include a few snapshots from Relax with Nature's "Portal Tropicales" zine.
Can you explain a little bit about that project?

Jonas: “Portal Tropicales” was just a really easy-vibed zine project featuring drawings/pictures/etc. from my friends around the globe.
I will definitely make more zines in the future.

S+U: Dreamers Cloth is embarking on a small tour soon. How many shows are you doing and how do you feel about playing live?

Jonas: So far it looks like 5 – 7 live shows, a DJ-gig, a solo exhibition and a group exhibition.
I feel really geared up about playing live at the moment.

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/beyondrepairrecords

JON READ

Alien Woman and Angel, 2006, 11" x 8.5", acrylic on paper
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Battle in Heaven, 2005, 16" x 24", acrylic on paper
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Cowboy vs. Angel, 2006, 12" x 16"acrylic on paper
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God 2, 2006, 6" x 10", acrylic on paper
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5000 Years, 2006, 16" x 24", acrylic on paper
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God and Satan, 2006, 36" x 22", acrylic on paper
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War Party, 2006, 28" x 40" , acrylic on paper
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Bodypainting, 2006, 24" x 16",acrylic on paper
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Fun Lake, 2007, 8.5" x 11", acrylic on paper
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Giant Mutant Lovers, 2007, 8.5" x 11", acrylic on paper
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Payback, 2008, 8.5" x 11", acrylic on paper
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Indian Girl Meets Angel, 2006, 16" x 20", acrylic on paper
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God 1, 2006 6" x 10", acrylic on paper
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Johnny Tungkara, 2008 40" x 30", acrylic on paper
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__________________________________
All paintings by Jon Read a.k.a. The Wiggins
Copyright 2009

INTERVIEW WITH JON READ

Q and A via e-mail April 2009

S+U: Your paintings seem like an amalgam of late night Sci-Fi, TV, religion, mythology and history. Is painting a way of coming to terms with all the junk/culture you've been exposed to over the years, or an outlet for something completely different?

JR: Well, I think all of the things you listed are connected… It’s a way to process and cope w/ the horror of the real world… Even history is an escape. But, yeah, I never wanted to hide my relationship w/ this low brow stuff, it is part of mental landscape. Also I think this "junk culture" in the end, will be considered the high art of our time.

S+U: How and by whom? It seems like the people who are writing high art-history can only deal with the “low bro” through concepts like “kitsch” and via irony.
Wouldn’t it take a sort of mental landslide for this to happen?

JR: Well, I have no idea who (super evolved robots that have replaced us?). The thing is most art these days is about art or whatever. It’s a way for "smart" people who can’t do math to feel good about themselves. I just don’t see the post modern scene having much of a shelf life.
It’s not the human stain, it’s not primal.

S+U: There's a sort of post-apocalyptic vibe to some of the paintings; ruins and a mix of futurism meets caveman savagery - a state of disorder and confusion. Have you given any thought to why you're drawn to these worlds?

JR: These works are from a project that my friend Brian McDonald and I have been working on for the past few years. The story takes place in a world in which there was a nuclear war in 1983 (which there almost was) and what my life would have been like if that had happened.
I'm a teenage shaman warrior living in a red skied, mutant filled, radioactive jungle that was Cleveland, OH. It’s about reinvention, adolescence and dealing w/ fear...
And yeah, I think that the ROAD WARRIOR is the greatest art work of the 1980s.

S+U: How do you start a new painting? Do you make sketches first to figure out what goes where and what looks best, or...?

JR: I work out the drawing w/ a pencil on the surface, then block in the color, then put in the line. Sometimes, I'll use comics to help w/ modeling the characters.

S+U: In one of the paintings, there's a cowboy and a caveman whuppin' some poor angels ass and in the background there are nice houses floating on fluffy clouds - do you recall what you had in mind when you did that one?

JR: That piece had to do w/ a series I was doing about un-illustrated religions. After I finished art school (which didn’t go well, cause I was dealing w/ these same themes back then and post modern art professors HATE God), I got a job making and restoring Catholic art.
So, everyday I was surrounded by dead Christ, dying Christ, or zombie Christ.
I was basically helping these worshippers relate to their Lord through imagery.
This got me thinking about the faiths that never had pictures made about their myths (for whatever reason).
So, this piece is about the GHOST DANCE faith, which was born from the near genocide of the North American Indian. The religion was created on reservations and told of a time where the earth would crack open and the Buffalo would come thundering out, and all the dead warriors would ride down from the heavens and drive the white man into the sea.
In my story this time has come to pass and the Christians are kicked out of the New World, which causes a war w/ heaven.
The cowboy is a white man that has sided w/ the Indians on their holy war (he wants the freedom of the Wild West to go on forever, too). And that's not a cave man, it’s a Great Ape and it’s a reference to Clint Eastwood's sidekick from 'ANY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE', which isn't a Western, but, what the hell.

S+U: Did you play the post modern game in any way at all, when you went to art school? Try and experiment within that trend, or did you detect the bullshit from day one and just stay away from it?

JR: Yeah, I did some stuff where I layered imagines, fields of color and stuff. People liked it, but I was just doing it to fit in.
I never knew when to stop on a piece. I had fun w/ it I guess.
But yeah, I was never sold on the post modern art ideals. And I now work in a super hip art space, so I can fake it really well!

S+U: What’s in line for the Wiggins musically and Jon Read artistically?
Have you got new releases in the works and more exhibitions lined up?

JR: I have a few music releases that are in the works.
Artistically, I have the post nuclear book coming out (someday) and I might be doing some design for a cartoon that some TV-producer friends of mine are working on.

S+U: Is there any chance of seeing you abroad with any of your projects?

JR: I'd love to get back to Europe (or just show over there)… I just don’t know too many people over there.

S+U: Well, I hope something’ll work out...
Lastly, now that you’ve already mentioned two of your favorite art works (Road Warrior and Any Which Way But Loose), please tell us about a few more favorite movies/albums/paintings/people, or whatever, which you feel in some way has helped influence you artistically…

JR: I Like: The Simpson, Wallace Wood, Over the Edge, the Cohen Brothers, David Lynch, Desmond Dekker, Elvis, Andy Warhol+ the Velvet Underground, The Modern Lovers Henry Darger, Catholic art from the middle ages, American Indians/Mayan art, a…a…a...all my friends (too many to list!).
Thanx.

Links:
The Wiggins on myspace
Another interview with Mr Read

BITING ROCKETS

Rocket #01 (click picture for best view)





Rocket #02 (click picture for best view)





Rocket #03 (click picture for best view)





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Rocket #15 (click picture for best view)





Rocket #16 (click picture for best view)


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Album covers selected by QBICO
More covers to follow

ILTH

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______________________________________
All collages are handmade 12"x12" - no computer
Copyright by Christopher J. Erickson
aka Christopher ILTH
2009