ImagineFx_-_December_2019

(Jacob Rumans) #1

Interview


“My hours are all over the place.
I wake up at 1pm and will get to the
studio around 2pm. I work until 2am
and sleep around 4am. I’m just lucky
that my fiancé is an emergency room
doctor who has the same hours as me.”


STYLISED FIGURATIVE WORKS
The last story is about the time Andrew
visited Cambodia. He went to his dad’s
hometown, a rural place built around
agriculture, and got lost. An old lady
came up to him and asked if he
remembered her. He didn’t. How could
he? This was his first time in town.
Then Andrew realised the old lady
thought he was his dad.
Like his dad, Andrew teaches art –
he’s lectured at his old art school, as
well as Ringling and Otis. His dad’s big


artistic inf luence was rural Cambodia,
but Andrew’s inf luences are more
diverse: gang culture, graffiti, anime,
the Old Masters, American Wild West
painters, superheroes, ninjas.
A piece by Andrew Hem could be
talking very personally about the
immigrant experience, about growing
up in the gap between two cultures or,
more universally, making us ask
questions about our own home. Is
home a place, people, memories, the
memories of others, a certain period of
time? Andrew could be showing you
isolation in modern life, or ancient
farming techniques, or just a really
cool place he went on his holidays.
Often he’s doing all of these things at
once. Because Andrew’s paintings, like
his stories, make you do some of the

I’m just lucky that my


fiancé is an emergency


room doctor who has


the same hours as me


FRAGMENTED
“I often travel solo and I
can’t remember much
from those trips.
I do remember trips
when I travel with
someone, though.”
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