You’re presenting your new project ’Public Audio Image’ at hangmenProjects and what initially drew me to the project is the way it intersects visual art and music and sees the participation of ten contemporary musicians by musically interpreting your work. What were the ideas occurring to mind leading up to the project?

When I initially presented the ideas and pictures of what would make for the aesthetic and intention of this project, the process led to interpretations back and forth between me and the music producers. So rather a more correct description would be that I interpret their final compositions to be able to finish the work.

At the core there was this desire to work with more than just one of the senses, and an ambition would be to mediate an experience where the viewer and the work have at least some interaction. I chose to work with sound naturally because music is what I want to surround me with in my everyday life, whether I work, rest, work out or socialize, feeling blue or happy, strong or weak – there’s almost always music influencing my subsistence. Maybe that is the most obvious explanation of why a large part of my work as a visual artist is music-related.

The visual identity of the works you’ve created on mirror is interesting and I would call them mixed media paintings myself, alluding to your background as a graffiti artist, and then there’s the added layer of the sound scores. What was the process behind carrying your works out?

The past years I’ve worked with digital printed media, prints in general. I felt stuck by this media and the computerized process. I wanted to work with depth, tangible weight, new media and mixture of materials, shaping in a more dynamic way where I end up with the work and where the object I work on leads me through the process, allowing me to lose control in a way.

Ten musicians making sound scores unique to the exhibition…What directions or pointers, if any, did you give the artists when approaching your visuals? Interestingly you were telling me how the music sounds cohesive despite the musicians not having compared notes so to speak.

My theory of why the compositions got so close to each other is that the musicians all got the same direction and source influencing each of them, despite this quite diverse span in styles that exists between them. The direction was simply that I approached each one of them with an artwork of mine. I believe most of them got the message instantly – they are professionals in terms of interpreting feelings and directions through their own body of work. So I’m not surprised they did such a great job. Also, I should mention that I have personal relationship with many of the involved ones, either on a personal level or as a client-based relationship.

I find there’s a nostalgic element in here, bringing my own relationship to music consumption and the compact disc to mind. What do you think is the relevance of a project like ‘Public Audio Image’ in 2016?

Of course there’s a chance that the viewer automatically feels that there’s a nostalgic presence in this work. But I would say that it is quite an opposite strive away from my perspective. I am personally not a fan of nostalgia. This project is all about the future. In a way you can see this as a “goodbye” and “R.I.P” of the Compact Disc format, and also experience these artworks as artifacts of a past time – that had a large influence on our present time. The approach of keeping the project “outside” of the Internet and to dedicate it to the physical room – is also driven by wanting to connect people in healthier and more romantic ways than what is offered by mediation of the Internet.

Your ties with music and musicians date long back in time and yet the project is quite a stretch from past projects and works you’ve done so far, propelling you into new territory as an artist I’d say. Is that the way you see it yourself? Or rather feel like all of your work, be it as an art director, video director or artist, compromise a whole?

This is a new approach, not at all weighing on the same considerations as my client-based projects as an art director but ultimately comes from the same source – from me, so everything in a way is connected. Though I really did my best to isolate this project from my pragmatic side, and instead opening doors to my subconscious to approach the creative sense. In this case there’s no compromises.

What are you most looking forward to yourself in terms of the exhibition opening?

There are many things I’m looking forward to at the opening. I have been working on this project for a significant time now. Of course I hope that the work and the space (hangmenProjects) comes through together the way I envisioned it. I hope people like it in general and find it interesting in terms of experience and hopefully there’s a solvent feeling of being at a special event where people find a sense of “now”. Most importantly I of course hope my friends and family show up to experience it.

Credits:

Words by Ashik Zaman

Slobodan Zivic’s ‘Public Audio Image’ opens at hangmenProjects in Stockholm on Friday April 29 (open through the weekend) and is curated by C-print Journal.

Musicians participating in ‘Public Audio Image’;
AnnaMelina, Axel Boman, Bella Boo, Familjen, Harald Björk, Kate Boy, Maya Lourenco, Missa, Oskar Linnros and Yourhighness

Exclusive The Forumist mixtape

“It was heartbreaking” says singer Kate Akhurst when asked about Hampus Nordgren Hemlin leaving the band to become a chef, not less than one month before the release of their debut album “One”, which saw the light of day on 6 November. “But it almost made our passion ten times bigger” she continues, “because this is what we really want to do.” Markus Dextegen agrees and tells me that he and Hampus has had a ten year long musical relationship, since before Kate Boy and Rocket Boy, the trio they had prior to meeting Kate.

Understandably this is an emotional subject; since they did not only part ways with a band member but also a dear friend (the band’s promotional manager Georg compares it to removing one leg from a three-legged chair.) But still, the show must go on, and the live performances will have to be adapted to two performers instead of three. Markus and Kate already played their first show as a duo with reworked songs and Kate says that “Our audience supports us as a 2-piece.”

We go on to talk about “Human Engine”, the fourth track from the upcoming debut, a song that portrays an urge to morph into something more than a human to overcome challenging situations, such as the one they’re in right now. Another angle to the tune that the duo discusses is the heart being the engine, working effectively in symbiosis with the vulnerable and beautiful human soul.

As sources of inspiration, Kate Boy has listed great names such as Brian Eno, David Bowie and Kate Bush, along with books like “New Fashion Japan”, and among them Peter Gabriel has been mentioned several times. Markus explains that Gabriel’s inspiration doesn’t come solely from his music, but from his way of making it. “[Gabriel] hasn’t tried to fit into something already done; he contributes to music by making something new.” That is something Kate Boy takes after, aspiring to sound personal, but they do see value in honouring influential music. “It is very important to tribute beautiful music” says Markus. “I would never put down anyone who tries to replicate a musical emotion” he adds and mentions the Swedish group Music is the Weapon who reincarnates the energy of the remarkable Fela Kuti.

Markus himself listens mostly to techno by the likes of Swedish pioneers Adam Beyer and Joel Mull and he calls them “sound artists” rather than song writers. The balance between those two worlds seems to fascinate him and I ask about their choice of equipment, their way towards finding the right sound. Roland Jupiter synthesizers are frequently used and due to the fragility of the old instruments, they cannot be transported from Kate Boy’s home town Stockholm, thereby making the music they have made so far a direct product of the Swedish capital.

On the cover of “One”, designed by Lee Griggs, Kate Akhurst is pictured in the same way as she was in the first ever Kate Boy picture: in a straight forward portrait. There is a striking difference between the two and Kate says that the album cover is the evolved version of the Kate Boy character, an entity that is separate from the band’s members. She concludes by saying that this open minded entity has just started to change and hopefully it will continue to evolve as it goes along.

The new Kate Boy album “One” is out now on Fiction Records.

Credits:

Words by Filip Lindström