ZINE ZINE ZINE
A zine (fanzine as they'd say here in the UK) was created to support our show @ BALTIC. They are still giving away free copies of it if you stop by. Today is the last day to see our installation , photos to come.
Here is one of the interviews we did for the zine, this one with John Foster :::::
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Author of New Masters of Poster Design John Foster Interviews Seripop
The defining aspect of what excites me in art and design is a solution
and visual attack that I could never conceivably come up with on my
own. The reality is few folks meet that standard. Seripop not only
meet that standard but they blow it completely away. I could never
even begin to analyze how they create the magic that emanates from
their minds. It's just there, before me, in all its magnificent glory.
If you are reading this then it is also within your reach to
experience this glory in person. Give in to the power. Just give in.
Here are a few words to accompany your journey:
JF: How has your work evolved from being a single piece, wheat pasted
to a light pole, to filling galleries?
SP: We started getting the idea from the first posters we were pasting
up in the streets. It just revealed itself as a medium with a lot of
possibilities, but the openness seemed too big to handle at first, and
that's why we spent time crafting our posters and exploring the medium
in its inner qualities until we felt our language was mature enough,
as well as our comprehension of the environment in which the posters
are in was mature enough.
We wanted to comment on posters in the city and the city around them
and everything related to them, but putting up more posters about this
did not seem enough. We had to make the medium talk about itself in a
better way by isolating, and having it become a caricature of itself
in a way.
Our viewing of the changing urban landscape, as well as our
participation in some of those changes, left us with the desire to
comment on those changes by creating full-scale environments that, as
cities and their infrastructures, are inevitably temporary.
JF: How are you hoping this new work will connect with the viewer?
SP: The research is pretty selfish, self-sufficient. The viewer can
decode whatever he wants, and there is enough ambiguity left in the
final product to make this happen. There is a desire of immersing the
viewer while the installations are enveloping the whole space that
they occupy.
JF: More and more I see a playful use of exploiting the dimensionality
in your work - what is pushing this?
SP: I think it just results as a desire to break and explore with the
elements of space, layout and communication. We love doing experiments
with what works and we also love finding out what doesn't - it's all
allowed, as long as it's voluntary. We are interested in exploring our
fixations on cities, urbanism, the ephemeral and how they intersect
with the idea of a public space.
JF: There is also a great deal of skewed repetition, in that shapes
and images repeat again and again but never quite in exactly the same
form. Is that a byproduct of your assembly process or a conscious
decision or both?
SP: It relates to the printing process in a way, what we learned from
it and also all the frustrations that go with it. Want it or not, with
thousands of repetitions, a stencil will slowly degrade or clog up,
need replacement. The printing process stresses the fact that it
creates multiples and images identical to the previous, but, on a
macroscopic level, we all know this is not true. This has marked us
quite a bit, and we cannot escape it as it is a part of the medium.
And we are seeing reference to that in the environment within which
posters exist: Imperfect repetition of streets, of buildings, of
people, of the way posters are placed. There is also a reference in
there with the sacro saint work ethic: repetition of movement will end
up making perfection - we allowed ourselves to question this. What if
repetition creates imperfection? What if perfection is just the result
of erosion, so the polished piece is the degraded version of the
better, fuller rough original?
JF: What are the materials in your constructions and do you see
yourselves incorporating further experimentation in this arena moving
forward?
SP: Currently we are using only screen-printed paper put together and
treated in many different ways. We want to explore the medium fully...
it feels like the possibilities are endless. But we are open to ideas
and incorporating other mediums within our work. It all depends of
what we want to talk about. But we will definitely go beyond the
current form of installation, and push other ideas with screen-printed
paper solutions.
JF: How large would you like to build one of your towers of multiple
pieces?
SP: It depends of the subject matter, and the space that is given to
us to perform in. The towers right now are made of individual diamond-
shaped modules that are roughly 9"x9"x20", placed in rings of 7, and
stacked almost infinitely on top of each other. We can play with them
in any way, and future installations will show this - the towers are
just a form that we are exploring at this moment. The individual
pieces will evolve too, in fact we are seeking to push the physical
qualities of paper as much as is possible with how we can fold these,
put them together and have them react together.
JF: Does the viewer know (and do you want it to be evident) that the
pieces are constructed from multiple smaller pieces?
SP: We don't really care to make the process obvious or not to the
viewer. I would depend on their point of view, in some ways the
construction of the towers could be more obvious than others. We seek
to present an ensemble of work for the installation, and if things are
obviously made some way, well that's part of the aesthetic of our
piece and we want to integrate this into our language - we always had
an affinity with old school formalists and minimalists.
JF: How have you adjusted from making work where multiples and low
costs are the key and you can always hold back one for yourself to
making large one-time installations with the goal being to physically
separate yourselves from the work once it has been created?
(Personally, I always found fine art so difficult because I had to let
the final work leave my hands.)
SP: There was not really any adjustment for us, partly because the
"multiples" work, our posters, well, the ones that really count are
the ones that are in the streets. We fully embraced the ephemeral
nature of it. In fact that was the main attraction, and it's the
aesthetic base of the installation work.
JF: How does your living arrangement inform your work?
SP: We live in a working-class, non-artistic neighborhood. We are
quite anonymous there, and it allows us somehow to "create in secret."
Everyday, we travel to our studio, which is perched on the 12th and
last floor of an industrial building, a bit removed from the rest of
the city (and what a view!) To get there, we have to navigate through
the whole city, observe its changes, see what's going on and comment.
This daily displacement and our physical situation make us anonymous
observers, and we feel privileged by this position - this inspired us
in our work.
JF: In the same vein, how does your musical work inform your visual
work?
SP: Music is more of a parallel aesthetic research with our visual art
stuff. Although music, with its relations and discussions with the
outside world, tends to be much more abstract and arbitrary, to us we
broadly manipulate the medium the same way we do with screen-printing.
We fill the space - we talk about contradictions, opposites - things
clash - dissonance is king. Because that's what thrills us, it's our
environment. We are stressed out all the time.
JF: Your pieces seem to have an aggressive sharpness, even if they are
ultimately soft to the touch that has been evident in the graphic
edges found throughout your two-dimensional work. Did these shapes
just happen organically or take form consciously to create a bit of a
barrier between the physical engagement?
SP: Well, the first intent with the individual pieces that form the
tri-dimensional part of the installation was a practical one: making
the forms take as much volume as possible once assembled, and have
them fit together easily. Since these are printed flat, there are
multiples limitations that pushed us to choose the form we are working
with now. So, it did happen organically, and the result carries some
meaning. It opposes the shapes that are pasted on the walls that are
more often in the organic realm. But the final choice of the form was
a conscious one as well, even if its evolution was not. Because once
assembled, the shape creates repulsion and opposition. It does impose
itself, and the sharp edges recall the aggressive tension there could
be in creation and in being the viewer.
JF: What has the reaction been from the more established art community
to your work? How has the design community reacted to your plunge into
the gallery world - and more importantly, your adjustment in what you
present for that to take place?
SP: We live a life that is often hermetic, and the worlds we do come
into contact with are those overlapping worlds of DIY art and DIY
music. As far as the more mainstream art community or design
community, we are so off in our own little world that we are not
really aware of what they think of us - if they even think of us at all.
While it's true we are starting to show the installations in pretty
respected galleries and contemporary art centers and they seem to get
a pretty positive response from the viewer, we are also new enough to
working this way, that there hasn't been much critical feedback yet.
JF: Will you be getting special haircuts for the opening?
SP: Yes: Yannick a beehive and Chloe a comb-over.
John Foster is the author of New Masters of Poster Design, For Sale:
Over 200 Innovative Solutions in Packaging Design, Dirty Fingernails,
Maximum Page Design and an upcoming monograph for Sub Pop Records.
Seripop are... well... seven sides of awesome.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This publication was funded by the Quebec Government in London.
Here is one of the interviews we did for the zine, this one with John Foster :::::
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Author of New Masters of Poster Design John Foster Interviews Seripop
The defining aspect of what excites me in art and design is a solution
and visual attack that I could never conceivably come up with on my
own. The reality is few folks meet that standard. Seripop not only
meet that standard but they blow it completely away. I could never
even begin to analyze how they create the magic that emanates from
their minds. It's just there, before me, in all its magnificent glory.
If you are reading this then it is also within your reach to
experience this glory in person. Give in to the power. Just give in.
Here are a few words to accompany your journey:
JF: How has your work evolved from being a single piece, wheat pasted
to a light pole, to filling galleries?
SP: We started getting the idea from the first posters we were pasting
up in the streets. It just revealed itself as a medium with a lot of
possibilities, but the openness seemed too big to handle at first, and
that's why we spent time crafting our posters and exploring the medium
in its inner qualities until we felt our language was mature enough,
as well as our comprehension of the environment in which the posters
are in was mature enough.
We wanted to comment on posters in the city and the city around them
and everything related to them, but putting up more posters about this
did not seem enough. We had to make the medium talk about itself in a
better way by isolating, and having it become a caricature of itself
in a way.
Our viewing of the changing urban landscape, as well as our
participation in some of those changes, left us with the desire to
comment on those changes by creating full-scale environments that, as
cities and their infrastructures, are inevitably temporary.
JF: How are you hoping this new work will connect with the viewer?
SP: The research is pretty selfish, self-sufficient. The viewer can
decode whatever he wants, and there is enough ambiguity left in the
final product to make this happen. There is a desire of immersing the
viewer while the installations are enveloping the whole space that
they occupy.
JF: More and more I see a playful use of exploiting the dimensionality
in your work - what is pushing this?
SP: I think it just results as a desire to break and explore with the
elements of space, layout and communication. We love doing experiments
with what works and we also love finding out what doesn't - it's all
allowed, as long as it's voluntary. We are interested in exploring our
fixations on cities, urbanism, the ephemeral and how they intersect
with the idea of a public space.
JF: There is also a great deal of skewed repetition, in that shapes
and images repeat again and again but never quite in exactly the same
form. Is that a byproduct of your assembly process or a conscious
decision or both?
SP: It relates to the printing process in a way, what we learned from
it and also all the frustrations that go with it. Want it or not, with
thousands of repetitions, a stencil will slowly degrade or clog up,
need replacement. The printing process stresses the fact that it
creates multiples and images identical to the previous, but, on a
macroscopic level, we all know this is not true. This has marked us
quite a bit, and we cannot escape it as it is a part of the medium.
And we are seeing reference to that in the environment within which
posters exist: Imperfect repetition of streets, of buildings, of
people, of the way posters are placed. There is also a reference in
there with the sacro saint work ethic: repetition of movement will end
up making perfection - we allowed ourselves to question this. What if
repetition creates imperfection? What if perfection is just the result
of erosion, so the polished piece is the degraded version of the
better, fuller rough original?
JF: What are the materials in your constructions and do you see
yourselves incorporating further experimentation in this arena moving
forward?
SP: Currently we are using only screen-printed paper put together and
treated in many different ways. We want to explore the medium fully...
it feels like the possibilities are endless. But we are open to ideas
and incorporating other mediums within our work. It all depends of
what we want to talk about. But we will definitely go beyond the
current form of installation, and push other ideas with screen-printed
paper solutions.
JF: How large would you like to build one of your towers of multiple
pieces?
SP: It depends of the subject matter, and the space that is given to
us to perform in. The towers right now are made of individual diamond-
shaped modules that are roughly 9"x9"x20", placed in rings of 7, and
stacked almost infinitely on top of each other. We can play with them
in any way, and future installations will show this - the towers are
just a form that we are exploring at this moment. The individual
pieces will evolve too, in fact we are seeking to push the physical
qualities of paper as much as is possible with how we can fold these,
put them together and have them react together.
JF: Does the viewer know (and do you want it to be evident) that the
pieces are constructed from multiple smaller pieces?
SP: We don't really care to make the process obvious or not to the
viewer. I would depend on their point of view, in some ways the
construction of the towers could be more obvious than others. We seek
to present an ensemble of work for the installation, and if things are
obviously made some way, well that's part of the aesthetic of our
piece and we want to integrate this into our language - we always had
an affinity with old school formalists and minimalists.
JF: How have you adjusted from making work where multiples and low
costs are the key and you can always hold back one for yourself to
making large one-time installations with the goal being to physically
separate yourselves from the work once it has been created?
(Personally, I always found fine art so difficult because I had to let
the final work leave my hands.)
SP: There was not really any adjustment for us, partly because the
"multiples" work, our posters, well, the ones that really count are
the ones that are in the streets. We fully embraced the ephemeral
nature of it. In fact that was the main attraction, and it's the
aesthetic base of the installation work.
JF: How does your living arrangement inform your work?
SP: We live in a working-class, non-artistic neighborhood. We are
quite anonymous there, and it allows us somehow to "create in secret."
Everyday, we travel to our studio, which is perched on the 12th and
last floor of an industrial building, a bit removed from the rest of
the city (and what a view!) To get there, we have to navigate through
the whole city, observe its changes, see what's going on and comment.
This daily displacement and our physical situation make us anonymous
observers, and we feel privileged by this position - this inspired us
in our work.
JF: In the same vein, how does your musical work inform your visual
work?
SP: Music is more of a parallel aesthetic research with our visual art
stuff. Although music, with its relations and discussions with the
outside world, tends to be much more abstract and arbitrary, to us we
broadly manipulate the medium the same way we do with screen-printing.
We fill the space - we talk about contradictions, opposites - things
clash - dissonance is king. Because that's what thrills us, it's our
environment. We are stressed out all the time.
JF: Your pieces seem to have an aggressive sharpness, even if they are
ultimately soft to the touch that has been evident in the graphic
edges found throughout your two-dimensional work. Did these shapes
just happen organically or take form consciously to create a bit of a
barrier between the physical engagement?
SP: Well, the first intent with the individual pieces that form the
tri-dimensional part of the installation was a practical one: making
the forms take as much volume as possible once assembled, and have
them fit together easily. Since these are printed flat, there are
multiples limitations that pushed us to choose the form we are working
with now. So, it did happen organically, and the result carries some
meaning. It opposes the shapes that are pasted on the walls that are
more often in the organic realm. But the final choice of the form was
a conscious one as well, even if its evolution was not. Because once
assembled, the shape creates repulsion and opposition. It does impose
itself, and the sharp edges recall the aggressive tension there could
be in creation and in being the viewer.
JF: What has the reaction been from the more established art community
to your work? How has the design community reacted to your plunge into
the gallery world - and more importantly, your adjustment in what you
present for that to take place?
SP: We live a life that is often hermetic, and the worlds we do come
into contact with are those overlapping worlds of DIY art and DIY
music. As far as the more mainstream art community or design
community, we are so off in our own little world that we are not
really aware of what they think of us - if they even think of us at all.
While it's true we are starting to show the installations in pretty
respected galleries and contemporary art centers and they seem to get
a pretty positive response from the viewer, we are also new enough to
working this way, that there hasn't been much critical feedback yet.
JF: Will you be getting special haircuts for the opening?
SP: Yes: Yannick a beehive and Chloe a comb-over.
John Foster is the author of New Masters of Poster Design, For Sale:
Over 200 Innovative Solutions in Packaging Design, Dirty Fingernails,
Maximum Page Design and an upcoming monograph for Sub Pop Records.
Seripop are... well... seven sides of awesome.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This publication was funded by the Quebec Government in London.